The TickTock Paradox
by NancyBG-OldMaidWhovian
Summary: Someone is messing about with the Earth's time frame, and, River Song goes missing. It's up to the Doctor and his friends to get to the bottom of things.
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Who: The Tick-Tock Paradox

Chapter 1

A long and very dull day at the office lay behind Jerry. Now, after having been stuck in a tailback on the motorway for nearly an hour, he was at last nearly home. Only, he didn't especially want to go home. His long-time partner Mike had suddenly decided that Jerry wasn't tidy enough for him. Which was just the first of a whole laundry list of issues Mike seemed to be having with him, of late.

Nearly every morning these days, it seemed to Jerry as if he was leaving for work with some sort of nit-picky palaver ringing in his ears. He'd phoned his partner while stuck on the motorway, to tell him that he'd be late for dinner. Jerry thought he was being considerate, but all Mike did was shout something about ruined plans. Sighing, he wondered if his partner was having some sort of mid-life crisis. Or, maybe Mike was feeling less comfortable with him, since Jerry had put on a few extra stone. He made a mental note to himself to work out more.

The setting sun reflected blood red on the windows of houses and the cars parked along the kerbside. Twittering birds flitted through the air, and flowers bloomed in all the gardens he passed. Driving down his road, lined on both sides with nearly identical council houses, Jerry suddenly had the urge to stop the car, turn around, and head for the nearest travel agent's office. A holiday, a nice little getaway, Jerry thought. That's just what they needed.

As the balmy spring air rushed through his open car window, Jerry dreamed of a sunny holiday in the Canary Islands or the south of France. Or, more likely on his budget, somewhere in Majorca. He didn't notice the strange black hole which had opened up in the sky above him.

Jerry's visions of sandy beaches and turquoise seas were abruptly halted, when a strange buzzing noise penetrated his ears. Was it the car, again? That would be rubbish, he'd just had it in the garage last week. Without warning, some kind of insect flew through the car window, and crashed into Jerry's cheek. He cursed, nearly swerving into a parked car.

Another big insect flew into the window, and another. They looked like some kind of grasshopper, which was odd, because it wasn't yet the time of year for them. Jerry rolled up the car window quickly, but it didn't help, because all of the sudden his vision went black.

The car was covered with insects, he couldn't see out any of the windows at all, couldn't see where he was going. Jerry panicked and tried to stop the car, but it was too late. With a resounding crash and a grinding of metal, the car slammed into the back of a removal van. Jerry wasn't going to have to worry about his job, Mike or getting away on holiday any longer.

After a night of clubbing with her friends, Ramona was tired and looking forward to a lengthy lie in back at her room. Now that exams were over, she could sleep as late as she wanted. At least, until she found a job. As she walked beside the rail track which ran alongside the river path she was walking on, the early morning fog brought with it a steady drizzle of rain. Sighing, Ramona drew her cardigan tighter about her, and walked a bit faster.

Pausing, Ramona thought she heard an odd noise. She turned around, but saw nothing. Straining to listen, she heard no sound but the stirring of the wind in the trees, the whisper of rain against the leaves and the gentle lap-lap of the water against the shore. With her back turned, she didn't see the large black hole which had opened up ahead of her on the tow path.

Before she could truly register what was happening, Ramona found herself staring at an enormous object coming at her through the fog. It shook the ground beneath her feet, and gave off a great huffing noise. Ramona looked down. It appeared that she had somehow come to be standing in the middle of the rail tracks. Two trains were bearing down upon her. One had a shiny black engine with red trim, puffs of white smoke trailing out behind it. Attached to the train were a long line of old-fashioned wooden passenger cars. The other engine, on the same track, but coming from the opposite direction, was similar to the first, but had a shorter load of vintage metal framed passenger cars.

Horror-stricken, her somewhat inebriated mind not able to cope with what she was seeing, Ramona stood fixed to the spot, unable to move. Her mind told her to jump, to run, but her body did not listen to her mind. She could only watch death's approach, with the icy fingers of that knowledge clawing at her wildly beating heart. The young woman's scream was cut off, by the reverberating concussion of the two great engines meeting head on.

Agnes smiled as she listened to her giggling children scampering among the lambs in the field next to her home. Her little girl, Alice, began taking her older brother Jimmy to task for teasing one of the sheep. He told her she was being too bossy. Before a row could erupt, Agnes called over to her children, suggesting that they get themselves something cold to drink from the kitchen

The afternoon sun felt warm on Agnes' upturned face, as she hung another sheet on the clothesline. Her two children climbed over the gate and came bounding through the garden. She smiled at them as they went past. Alice, acting as if it was her suggestion all along, announced that she and Jimmy were going to get some fruity drinks from the kitchen. Without turning from her task, Agnes reminded them to remove their wellies before going inside the house. That would be all she needed, having the kids track sheep dung and mud over her nice clean kitchen floor.

Bending down to get another sheet from her basket, Agnes didn't see the black hole appear in the pasture where the sheep were. Then, she heard a strange noise. Listening more carefully, she thought it sounded like muffled screams and explosions and machine gun fire.

With the universal martyred sigh of motherhood, she was about to scold her children for turning on the TV set before teatime, when Agnes noticed a strange white fog. It was rolling across the pasture where her children had been playing. An odd odour came to her, something like a mixture of black pepper and pineapple. As the fog reached her, Agnes' lungs began to burn, she suddenly found she couldn't breathe. Dropping the sheet, she collapsed to the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In the gleam of coppers, blues, yellows and reds that made up the colours of the TARDIS console room, the Doctor stood hunched over, a lock of hair in his eyes, typing something on the old typewriter set into the console. Under his suit jacket one of the Doctor's braces had gone slightly askew. His red bow tie was undone, as were his shoelaces.

His lips were pursed in concentration, as the he simultaneously typed, while also staring intently at the readings on the astral pylonmeter.

The Doctor had waved Amy and Rory off, as they set out to Amy's parent's anniversary party, at some hotel in London. He'd flown off into space, for a little peace and quiet. He'd been setting about making some minor adjustments to his sonic screwdriver, when an urgent pinging on the console had alerted him to some bit of trouble, somewhere in the universe. There was a tiny fluctuation in the space-time vortex. Something he'd never seen before. It wasn't the crack in time. There wasn't enough interference for that. This was more like a spacial anomaly,. The astral pylonmeter acted like a sort of time-space radar, and this was merely a minute blip showing up in the fabric of time.

Frowning in concentration as he examined the readings he was getting, the Doctor's frown deepened, as a new sound emitted from the console. The insistent ringing of a telephone. He wanted to ignore it, but it was disturbing his concentration.

"I knew I shouldn't have had that chat little with Alex Bell in Glasgow that day." The Doctor muttered crossly, giving a hard stare at the offending device. "Humans and telephones! What is this obsession they have with mobiles, going around everywhere with the thing glued to the sides of their heads, like some kind of third ear? On bikes, in restaurants, in lifts, on trains-even while they're on the loo! I mean, what's with that? How they do natter on, gabbling away about shopping lists, marital rows, traffic tail backs, where to go for lunch, what the cat vomited up on the carpet. And what is it with people writing in text speak? Shakespeare would weep if he'd lived to see that. Well...maybe not, he'd be over six hundred years old. I don't suppose much would surprise him at that age."

Still, the phone kept on ringing. He stopped muttering to himself and glared pointedly at the phone. Then, he shrugged. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor snatched it up.

"Hello? No, I don't want to buy any double glazing today, thanks."

"Doctor!" Came a female voice on the other end, "Don't you dare hang up."

"River?" The Doctor replied. "You know, I really am quite busy at the moment..."

"You're always busy, Doctor." She answered. "Let me guess, you've found a spacial anomaly in the fabric of time, and you are trying to measure it?"

The Doctor unconsciously took a step back, and looked up, a perplexed expression on his face. He scowled, and looked warily around the console room.

"Oh no," he sighed into the phone. "tell me you haven't installed some kind of spy cam in here, so you can keep tabs on me. That would be just too clingy...or disrespectful of my privacy...or paranoid...or kinky...or quite possibly all of the above or any combination thereof." Even though he knew River couldn't see it, the Doctor gave an exaggerated shudder. "I hope you're not turning into some kind of over-the-top obsessed fan-girl, bent on turning me into your own personal possession."

"Oh, I'm much more than that, Doctor, and you know it. Or rather, you will, someday." River teased him. She was standing in a red phone box on a busy city street corner. "Listen to me, the reason I'm calling is that I know about that anomaly. I know where, or rather when, it's originating from."

"Really?" the Doctor said, forgetting to be cross as his natural curiosity took over. "OK, tell me what's going on. I'm all ears. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration," He mumbled, tilting his head and feeling his left ear with his hand, "but you know what I mean..."

"There's something wrong with time, Doctor. If you'll stop playing with your ear and listen to me..." River scolded him.

"I knew it River, you did install one of those hidden cameras in my TARDIS!" The Doctor interjected.

"No, I didn't...well, except maybe for that one in in the swimming pool's changing room..." she replied cheekily, cradling the phone receiver under her chin. She removed a small notebook from her purse. Opening it, she glanced at the page. On it were scrawled a series of numbers and geometric diagrams. "But if we can move on, Doctor, I need to tell you that the anomaly is getting stronger, and I am not so sure it's a natural phenomena."

"What makes you say that?" The Doctor asked her, suddenly worried, glancing a the blip showing up on the pylonmeter. He wasn't liking the sound of this.

"As I said, it seems to be coming from one particular point in Earth's time line, and besides that, whatever it is , it's deadly. Already two lives have been lost, and one woman was seriously injured, all under very unusual and mysterious circumstances. But Doctor, there's something more, something you should know, I found an ancient intergalactic code hidden inside the anomaly." River reported to him. Her voice almost had a shaky quality to it, as if she was afraid of having to tell the Doctor some awful truth.

"What sort of code?" The Doctor asked, his brows furrowing in apprehension. "Have you been able to translate it?"

"Yes." Came River's short answer.

"Well, what is it then?" The Doctor impatiently demanded of River Song. Without being aware of it, he was gripping the edge of the console with whitened knuckles.

"The code appears to be at least partially written in old..."

The Doctor yanked the phone away from his ear, as a high pitched squawk of feedback cut off River's reply.

"River? Are you still there?" The Doctor could only just make out River Song's voice, but not what she was saying, the signal was breaking up due to some kind of interference. "What is it now?" he complained, moving over to a different part of the console. A quick check of the scanner revealed the problem.

"Ugh! What is it with the Americans and their obsession with outer space? Not to mention all the rubbish they've been leaving behind up here. I mean, they are turning this part of the galaxy into a positive tip! The Shadow Proclamation should fine them for littering." The Doctor decried, before putting the phone receiver back to his ear. "OK, if you can hear me, listen carefully River, it's important. Since I can't hear you properly, I'll have to ring you back. There's a NASA shuttle passing close by, and it's quite possible, however unlikely, that its space to ground transmissions are messing up the mobile signal. That is so un-cool. Anyway, I'll ring you right back, just as soon as I can take the TARDIS out of range of the shuttle's transmissions."

Several minutes later, with the TARDIS well out of range on the other side of the Earth, the Doctor rang up River.

"Hi!" came an American male voice on the other end of the phone, "This is Bob's Bait Shop and Fish Fry. You hook 'em and we cook 'em."

"What? Erm..." Was all the Doctor could say, his face looking slightly perplexed. "Sorry, wrong number."

The Doctor redialed much more carefully.

"Hello, River?" He said, before once again abruptly jerking the phone away from his ear.

This time he'd rung up what seemed to be a very irate elderly woman, whom was yelling at him in Japanese. From what she was saying, apparently it was three in the morning in Tokyo, and she was quite cross at him for waking her. The Doctor quickly apologized and hung up. Taking a deep breath , he tried phoning River again.

"Thank you for calling Hesco Novelties Limited. For sales, press one." Said a cheerful recorded voice. "For delivery, press two, for our hours of operation, press three. If you have a complaint, please hold and our next available representative will be happy to assist you, sometime in the near future."

The Doctor hung up the phone. He sat down on the jump seat and rubbed his forehead. He glanced over at the phone on the console and sighed.

"Well, something's not right. Either my phone isn't working properly, or someone, somewhere out there, doesn't want me to reach River." Suddenly, he grinned and jumped up. "OK, so I can't call her myself, but maybe someone else, can!"

Rushing back over to the phone, the Doctor once again punched in the number of the pay telephone River had been using. He waited while it rang. Someone picked up. The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh er—hullo your Majesty. It's the Doctor." He said respectfully. After a pause, the Doctor continued, "I am so sorry to be bothering you while you're dressing for tea with Princess Beatrice. Oh, by the way, tell her I'm sorry about the hat. I sent her the wrong one. That one was meant to be worn by the Honourary Fribble Princess for the annual Strawberry Milkshake and Skiffle Band Festival on Kateross Four. Got my princesses mixed up, I'm afraid. If it's any consolation, her hat is going to end up as one of the most popular fashion crazes of the mid-27th century. Anyway, your Majesty, I was wondering if you could do me an enormous favour..."

A short while later, the Queen rang him back with coordinates for River Song's location on Earth. The Doctor got busy and landed the TARDIS in an alleyway off of a street of shops in Brixton. After re-adjusting his braces and re-tying his tie and shoelaces, the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and went out into the alley. He emerged out on to the road, and immediately spied the red phone box River had described to the Queen.

However, when the Doctor arrived at the phone box, it was empty. All he found was River Song's purse, lying on the floor, an open tube of lipstick lying beside it. The phone's receiver was hanging down, swinging back and forth as if it had just been abandoned in a hurry. The Doctor was about to turn away, when he noticed some writing in lipstick on one of the glass panes of the phone booth. The last bit of writing was smudged, as if the writer was pulled away from what she was doing. Of course, that could only be River, the Doctor thought to himself. Peering at the glass, he read what River had written there. "_SOS 1915 MA_-"

"_SOS._" The Doctor said to himself. "That means River's in trouble. Either someone's abducted her, or she's being pursued. But what does _1915 _and _M.A._ mean? Is it some kind of code? Coordinates? A street address?"

The Doctor was about to leave, when he remembered River's purse was on the floor. He'd only just stooped down to retrieve it, when he was showered with shards glass and splintered wood, as the front of the phone box was shattered in an explosive puff of smoke, destroyed by the bright red flare of an energy beam.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As the seconds ticked by, the Doctor crouched down on the floor of the phone box, remaining motionless. But, no more weapons were discharged. Peeking through the shattered door, the Doctor saw nothing to indicate who had tried to kill him. Life seemed to be going on as usual on the high street, no one noticed the destruction of the phone box. The beam seemed to have been aimed at his head and chest, and so missed the Doctor completely when he'd bent down to pick up River's purse.

The assassin seemed to have gone, possibly mistaking the Doctor's immobility on the floor for death or serious injury. Slowly, the Doctor raised himself up off the floor of the phone box. Still clutching River's purse, he carefully brushed the broken glass and slivers of red wood off of him. The Doctor hesitated. There was something strangely familiar about that energy weapon, but try as he might, he couldn't quite conjure up exactly what it was.

"Someone doesn't know me very well, if they think this will put me off. Or," the Doctor paused thoughtfully, "perhaps they know me a little too well, and want to draw me in?" he shrugged, as he headed towards the alley where he'd parked his TARDIS. "Either way, I think I should find out where River's gone. Something tells me she knows a lot more than she was letting on." .

The Doctor was just fitting the key into the lock, when a hand tapped him on the shoulder. Removing and pocketing the key, he turned around. When he saw who it was, the Doctor winced and groaned.

"Doctor! Major Tibbets at your service. It is my very great honour to meet you, sir!" Said a distinguished looking older gentleman in a U.N.I.T. uniform. U.N.I.T. stood for "United Nations Intelligence Task Force, a semi-secret international military & scientific organization, founded in the early nineteen seventies to deal with extra-terrestrial threats to Earth. The Doctor had once served as its unofficial scientific advisor in its early years, and occasionally thereafter. The major came to attention and saluted the Doctor.

The man was tall and hefty, but not fat. His ruggedly handsome face bore a slight tan, as if he'd spent a lot of time outdoors in a hot climate recently, and his dark hair was graying at the temples. He spoke with a clipped posh accent. The man reminded the Doctor of someone, but he couldn't think of whom it might be. All these military types looked the same to him.

"Oh, do put your hand down." A disgruntled Doctor told the Major. "Salute me again and I'll...I'll be quite cross with you."

"Yes, I'd been tipped off that you didn't care for military protocol." Major Tibbets replied. "I can see that the personal footnote the brigadier made in your file all those years ago, was quite correct. Very well, Doctor, I shan't salute, if that's your wish. Nice fashion accessory, by the way. Perhaps next time I should curtsy." the major added sarcastically, eying River's purse.

"It's a purse. " The Doctor said defensively. "I carry a purse now. Purses are cool. Besides, I think it sets off the bow tie rather nicely. You have a problem with that, major?"

"Ahem—" the major cleared his throat, "Er—no, I suppose not. 'Don't ask, don't tell', as my American counterparts like to say." He responded stiffly. "Modern fashion trends aside though, Doctor, I really do need to talk to you. Rather urgently."

Love to chat, really I would," the Doctor said, turning around to unlock the TARDIS door, "but I really have quite a lot to do today, major. So if you don't mind, must dash..."

There was an audible click of several gun triggers being cocked. The Doctor froze and looked behind him. Three U.N.I.T soldiers were stood there, with their guns pointed at his head.

"Such as...?" the major asked, not about to be put off.

"Well, for one, I need to wash my hair. Not very pleasant having slivers of glass and wood in it. And I really must put a sticking plaster on. I have a scratch, you see." The Doctor answered indignantly, holding up the back of his hand, which indeed did have a very small abrasion on it.

"I'm sure you'll find our medical facilities back at U.N.I.T. base more than adequate, Doctor." the major informed him. "I'm afraid I really must insist you come with us. And, if necessary, I will personally see to your—erm, '_wound_.'

"Are you going to kiss it and make it all better?" The Doctor sniffed.

One of the soldiers behind him snickered, and the major glowered and cleared his throat. The noise immediately ceased.

"Really major, you don't understand." The Doctor said urgently. "I have to get to my TARDIS. The life of someone I care about very much may be at stake, so whatever you want me for, the answer is uncategorically, absofreakingloutely, positively, _N. O_. As in no, nyet, nanew-nanew, non, nein, nix, nada, la shukron."

A half hour later, the Doctor was sitting in a U.N.I.T. Lab, situated deep underneath the Tower of London. Around the room were placed computer stations, and tables holding various scientific equipment. A few lab assistants had been working when the three of them entered the room, but left when the major ordered them out. With a sticking plaster covering his hand, the Doctor was leaning one hand on the desk, staring intently at a display on a computer. Seated in front of the computer was his scientific friend Malcolm, who'd helped save the lives of the Doctor and others, when the flying bus 200 had to escape from an alien planet through a wormhole in space.

The Major was also stood there observing, but admonished by a cranky Doctor for breathing down his neck, he'd stepped back a few paces.

"As you can see, Doctor, it's not exactly the same as that wormhole that brought those alien stingrays through to this world, but there are some definite similarities." Malcolm told him. The dark haired little man was barely able to contain his excitement at working with his hero again. His eyes shone with delight and his busy fingers almost trembled with joy. "Look at this reading here, it's measuring exactly 120 malcolms, until right after a man in Milton Keynes was reported to have crashed his car into the back of a lorry. About at that very moment, there's a fluctuation in the osolation output, of an additional 55 malcolms...and then it simply disappears. Look there," the scientist pointed at the screen, "flat line. Back to normal, as if nothing had ever happened."

"Was there anything found at the scene to indicate anything unusual?" the Doctor asked.

"Nothing specific, I'm afraid." The major answered. "Unfortunately, the car burst into flames and exploded on impact. However, the medical coroner did find something unusual when he examined the body. He found a dead locust in the man's mouth."

"There shouldn't be any locusts or grasshoppers at all, this time of year. What kind of locust?" The Doctor questioned Malcolm, ignoring Major Tibbets.

"Oddly enough, our entomologist expert says it was a desert locust, found mainly in the Middle East. Very curious, that. Although he could be mistaken, I suppose." The major answered.

"And there's been at least two other incidents?" The Doctor said.

"How on earth did you know that?" A surprised major asked. "As a matter of fact, yes. The body of a young woman, or rather what was left of her, was found on some rail tracks a few days ago. At about the same time, there was that exact fluctuation which was just described to you, in a specific point of space close to where the young woman was found."

"How'd she die?" The Doctor turned and looked at the major. "I need to know. It could be very important." He added seriously.

"Well, by all appearances, it seemed almost as if she'd been crushed between two trains. However, that was a side track, used by a local factory for freight shipments. We checked with the rail transport company, and no trains were scheduled to be using that particular siding until the following week."

"What else?" The Doctor asked.

"A woman in Wales was hanging laundry in her back garden, when she was felled by some chlorine gas. Her home was outside a small village in the Gowers, miles from anywhere that would produce such a gas. She didn't die, but she is a very sick woman. It may be months, perhaps years, before she fully recovers, if she does at all. She wrote down some details for the police, which were passed along to us. Nothing unusual occurred, except that she saw a white mist or fog, rolling across the sheep pasture next door, and swore she could hear gunfire and explosions, just before the gas injured her. About a half a dozen sheep were also killed. We sent a couple of them to our lab for a necropsy."

"Let me guess," the Doctor said, nodding his head, "they'd been killed by inhaling choline gas, just like the woman, but in slightly greater concentrations."

"Yes!" the major exclaimed. "How in the dickens did you know that?"

"Oh, he knows everything, sir." Malcolm interrupted smugly, "He's the Doctor."

"Me? Good heavens, no! I hope not. Sure, I'm a genius, but to stop thinking for myself or asking questions because I believed that I already knew everything, and nothing else mattered? I'd be like some right-wing conservative...person." The Doctor shuddered. "My worst nightmare. Why do you think I ran away from home in the first place? Bleurgh!" The Doctor shuddered again. "Speaking of not knowing something, what about the dead girl?" The Doctor asked, looking up at Major. "Has anyone bothered to check to see if anything was left behind, to indicate what sort of trains they were?"

"I'm not sure why it matters what model of trains they were, but yes, Doctor. As a matter of fact, our forensics team ran over the area with a fine toothed comb. All they found were a few pieces of charred wood, a small patch of what appears to be kerosene oil and bits of twisted iron plating. We're expecting the results from the lab, any time now." The major informed the Doctor.

"OK, OK," the Doctor muttered, getting up to pace the floor, as he puzzled the evidence out in his mind. "So, what we do know so far, is that there's been three isolated, but not necessarily random attacks, resulting in two deaths and one injury. We have a desert locust, a chlorine gas attack and possibly a head-on train wreck."

"I'd say that sums it up, Doctor." The major said dryly. "But I hardly see where any of this can lead us, without more evidence to go on."

"Really?" The Doctor asked, ceasing his pacing and looking at the major with raised eyebrows. "And here I thought all of you military types thrived on history in school. All those wars and revolutions to read about."

"As a matter of fact, Doctor, I preferred drama and music." The major answered stuffily, putting his hands behind his back, and assuming a posture and look which dared anyone to make light of this statement. "And I don't see what history has to do with any of this, what can some old dusty tome on the past tell us, that we don't already know?"

"On the contrary, it can tell us a lot more than you think, major. History has a way of repeating itself, like a broken record...or pickled onions. Different players, different events, but the same pattern, repeated over and over. Why do you think you humans have so many wars and bigotry and social violence all the time? For instance there's a popular political party in America whom occasionally incorporates many of the same propaganda techniques and social attitudes as those used by Nazi's, but very few people seem to notice—because they don't think the past is revalelent to the present. Except when it suits their own agendas.." The Doctor said, looking at the computer readings again. "What about you, Malcolm?" he casually asked his friend, "I suppose you preferred maths and science in school?"

"Maths and art class, actually." Malcolm admitted, grinning. "I used to be quite good at pencil drawings. I liked to draw comic book characters. I didn't like science until I until my high school science teacher, Mr. Norton was his name, starting showing me all of these far-out experiments I could do."

"Erm...far-out?" the major asked, slightly askance at this revelation.

"It was the seventies, major. I suppose today kids would say that it really rocked or rolled, or does...something. You know, I'm not sure what the equivalent of far-out would be today, actually. Perhaps I should do some research in my spare time."

"I believe the saying these days is 'dope' or 'crack'...or something like that. When I was in school, the popular saying was '_neat-o!_'" The major contributed. "Or rather, I think it was. I'm afraid I was rather shy, back then. Not exactly part of the '_in_' crowd."

"Me too!" Malcolm exclaimed. "And I hated P.E., positively dreaded it. One boy used to hit me over the head with his school books after we played football, because I had a rather bad tendency to kick the ball towards someone on the other team..."

"Anyway," the Doctor said, sitting in a nearby swivel chair, barely containing his excitement, "sorry to interrupt this fascinating discussion about your school days and current cultural etymology, but if we could get back on course, I do have one observation for you. Because the three events do, you see, have a very definite connection to each other." With that, he used his feet to spin the chair around in a circle, smiling like a child who'd just been offered a free double scoop ice cream coronet.

Both Malcolm and Major Tibbets turned questioning eyes towards the Doctor.

"As I said there is a pattern, but you're just not seeing it.. Mainly because the clues are all historical one's." The Doctor informed them.

"How so?" The major said, looking unsure of the Doctor's reasoning.

"Oh, I think I get it!" Malcolm interjected, waving his hand in the air, his eyes alight with sudden understanding. "You mean these events may have happened before Doctor, but in a different time and place?"

"Very good, Malcolm." The Doctor smiled. "Yes, all three of these accidents, if you can call them that, have a connection with actual historical events in Earth's history. What's more, I think it's entirely possible that they can all be traced to a very specific year."

"Poppycock!" The major snorted. "How on earth can you deduce all of that, with only a handful of evidence and some scientific mumbo-jumbo?"

"Connecting the dots, major. Otherwise known as basic common sense." The Doctor answered, leaning back in his chair, crossing his legs and putting his hands behind his head. "I presume you have heard of that, even if the military doesn't like to use it very often."

Releasing his hands, the Doctor looked up at Major Tibbets.

"Here's your evidence then: a plague of desert locusts, a head-on collision of two trains, one of them possibly with wooden rail cars, and, a chlorine gas attack." As he'd spoken, the Doctor had ticked off each clue with his fingers. "Only in one specific year did all three events occur. There was a devastating plague of locusts in the Middle East, around Palestine and Syria. It was said that the insects were so numerous, they blotted out the sky. This event not only caused a famine of biblical proportions, it also completely destroyed the economy in the hardest hit areas. Also in that same year, one of Britain's greatest rail disasters occurred in Scotland. A troop train collided head-on with an express passenger train. The troop train was using old-fashioned wooden cars, which had been taken out of retirement for use during the war. They were lit with gas and oil lamps. Those troops and passengers who weren't killed in the initial crash, were burned to death in the resulting fire. Over two hundred lives were lost. And, in that same year, major, the Germans began using chlorine gas for the first time in the battlefield, against British troops."

"What point in time do you believe this is coming from, Doctor?" Malcolm queried.

"If I'm right, it all centres on the year nineteen fifteen." The Doctor answered.

"But Doctor, how can events that happened in the past, come forward ninety-six years into the future, and effect people here in the present?" Malcolm asked, looking worried now. "Wouldn't that create some kind of time paradox?"

"Not always, no. You see, time isn't linear, it's sort of like a ball of...oh never mind." The Doctor shrugged. "Just trust me when I tell you that some points in time are immovable, they cannot change, they must remain constant. Yet, time can also be a creature of the abstract. It can and has been altered. Often it's on such a small scale, as to not even be noticeable. Well, not noticeable by you lot, anyway. However," the Doctor continued, once again restlessly pacing the floor like a caged tiger, "for events such as these to occur, from one specific time period, creating havoc without any witnesses or attracting any obvious attention, that would take a very deft hand indeed. No, I don't think this is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill time meddling, Malcolm."

The Doctor ceased his pacing and stared the major in the face. The Doctor's eyes gleamed with determination, his jaw was set and his hands were clenched.

"Someone is messing about with time, Major Tibbets. As they said in the seventies, time is groove thing, my own private party. And it seems that there is a party crasher afoot. I must suss out whomever it is, and show him, her or it, the door."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Finally managing to convince the major that he needed his TARDIS to trace the disturbances in time back to their source, Major Tibbets allowed the Doctor to return to his ship. With great reluctance, the Doctor agreed to let Malcolm go along with him. The major insisted on accompanying them both back to the alleyway where the Doctor had left the TARDIS.

Just as the three of them turned into the alley, walking several paces to get to the TARDIS, which was parked halfway down the pavement, the Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. He stopped so abruptly, that Malcolm ran into him, smooshing his nose against the back of the Doctor's tweed jacket.

"What the devil are you doing, Doctor?" Major Tibbets shouted, as he quickly side-stepped to avoid crashing into Malcolm's back.

"Did you hear something?" The Doctor responded, holding up his finger to shush Malcolm, before the scientist had barely opened his mouth to speak.. "Shhh—listen!" Then, they all heard an odd sound, totally out of place with the normal sounds of a modern-day high street. It was the thunder of hooves, gunfire and artillery fire, punctuated with hoarse shouts of "Viva Villa!"

Without warning, out of the far end of the alleyway, right though a solid brick wall, charging two abreast, came half a dozen horsemen. The dusty riders sitting tall on their colourful mounts rode determinedly towards the Doctor, Malcolm and the major. The galloping men were dressed in an assortment of short jackets, most of which had crossed cartridge belts over them, and wore tall, wide-brimmed fancy-embroidered Mexican sombreros. All of them were brandishing either six-shooters or Winchester repeating rifles. The major started to unholster his own pistol, but some new sound stayed his hand. From up in the sky, came the rough drone of what sounded like a very loud lawn mower.

Malcolm and Major Tibbets looked up and gaped at the sight of a bi-plane with a mounted machine gun on the front of it, swooping down towards the alley. As it flew lower, the major could see that the plane was bright yellow, with a big red, white and blue star in a circle painted on its side, as well as the legend "_1__st__ Aero_" painted in black. A leather jacketed pilot with goggles, was flying right towards the horsemen alleyway.

"Quickly, run!" The Doctor called to the two men, dashing for the cover of the TARDIS. It was parked so that there was about a meter of space between it and the wall of one of the buildings.

The three of them sprinted down the alley, as the aeroplane opened up with it's machine gun, chipping a line of holes in the pavement as the bullets followed close behind the trio as they ran towards TARDIS.

The Doctor, Malcolm and the Major all squeezed in between the ship and the brick wall. Bullets should have been ripping apart the blue wood, but the major was surprised to see that they seemed to be bouncing off, instead.

"The TARDIS' safety protocols are functioning properly, I see. Thank heavens I didn't bother to deactivate them while I was working on the antediluvian torque converter yesterday." The Doctor said to himself, nodding his head in satisfaction. He turned and looked at Malcolm and the major. "The TARDIS has automatically activated the outer forcefield. Nothing can penetrate that. We're safe." He informed the others.

Peering around the TARDIS, the Doctor saw the horsemen sweep past...and then disappear. Cautiously, the three of them emerged from hiding.

"What the devil was that all about?" The major spluttered, looking slightly shaken.

"Off-hand I'd say we just got in between some sort of skirmish between the followers of Pancho Villa, and a plane from the First Areo Squadron of the American Military."

"Who?" Malcolm asked, puzzled.

"If it's nineteen fifteen," The Doctor reasoned, "that means that Woodrow Wilson has pledged U.S. support of an interim Mexican political leader and former revolutionary named Carranza, whom Villa believes has designs on becoming a military dictator. In retaliation for this, Villa and his revolutionaries stage raids on American citizens living in and around northern Mexico. Much like today, sensational media coverage causes national outrage at this affrontery of its citizens. This in turn prompts Wilson into ordering General Pershing and hundreds of American troops to cross the border, to engage and force the surrender of Villa and his revolutionaries. But, even with mounted cavalry and artillery units, trains, planes and tanks, against what amounted to a rag-tag army of mounted guerrillas, Pershing never won a decisive victory against him. Ironically, a century later, Pancho Villa is considered by many Americans to be some sort of western folk hero."

"Thank you for the history lesson, Doctor." The major said dryly. "Yet, as preposterous as I find all of this, I think you're quite right." The major looked down at the bullet holes in the floor of the alley, "Certainly those bullets were real, at any rate."

"Are you sure they're gone?" A frightened Malcolm asked. "Suppose they come back?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure it's safe, Malcolm." The Doctor answered, placing a reassuring hand upon his friend's shoulder. "The crossing over of the time line would require an enormous amount of energy. I don't think it can be maintained for more than five or ten minutes, at most."

Unlocking the TARDIS door, the Doctor opened it and smiling, grandly gestured to Malcolm that he should enter. He was like a proud homeowner, showing his guest a newly decorated home. As Major Tibbets started to walk over the TARDIS threshold, the Doctor quickly blocked the entrance. Reaching behind his back, he shut the door.

"What are you doing?" the major protested indignantly.

"Sorry, but you're barred, mate." The Doctor told him sternly, crossing his arms and standing firmly in front of the TARDIS doors. .

"What?" The major exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"Erm—In case you hadn't noticed, I believe I just did, major." The Doctor said calmly.

"Doctor, you don't understand." The major said urgently. "Malcolm is my own personal responsibility. The truth is, he's invaluable. U.N.I.T. needs him. I cannot risk losing our best and brightest scientist, whatever the reason."

"I'm sorry major. Final answer: no, I will not permit you to come aboard my ship." He answered.

"For heaven's sake, why not?" The major said, clearly getting frustrated by the Doctor's implacable attitude.

"Because I said so." The Doctor responded with finality.

"That's no sort of answer. I want you to tell me why I can't come along!" The major demanded sulkily, like a teenager being denied borrowing his dad's car for a date with the hot new girl at school.

"Oh, Alright." The Doctor, relenting with a patient sigh. "Because you're carrying a gun. I don't allow weapons in my TARDIS. As in never. As in never-ever-ever. As in only over my dead body." The Doctor told him.

"But, I'm a military man, we all carry guns. It's regulations, a time-honoured tradition, even. Doesn't mean I have to use it." The major argued.

"No guns. Never any guns. Guns bad. Bad, bad guns." The Doctor said, as if trying to reason with a small child.

"This is ridiculous." The major snorted. "How am I supposed to protect Malcolm without a weapon?"

"I suppose you could always buck military tradition and be clever and imaginative." The Doctor shrugged.

"Stuff and nonsense!" The major told him.

"My TARDIS, my rules." The Doctor retorted, crossing his arms and legs and leaning his back against the doors. "If you don't like it, go back to U.N.I.T. and wait for us there. I'll even pay for for the taxi, if you wish, my treat."

For a full minute, the major prevaricated with the Doctor about losing his trusty sidearm. Then, with a final sigh, he realized that it was a lost cause and relented. Major Tibbets regretfully handed over his pistol. Taking out the bullets first, the Doctor sonicked the gun, rendering it useless. He then tossed it away in a nearby rubbish bin. The major cringed when he saw this, but held his tongue. It was only then that he was allowed to enter the TARDIS.

The Doctor had just set the TARDIS into flight, when the phone on the console rang again. Admonishing the delighted and amazed Malcolm, and the more stoic and slightly sulky Major Tibbets not to touch anything, the Doctor answered.

"Hello!" He spoke anxiously into the phone.

"Doctor, sorry to bother you, but. I'm afraid we have a wee problem here." Came Amy's apologetic voice from the other end of the phone.

"Actually, she's understating things a bit, Doctor." Interrupted Rory's anxious-sounding voice, It's a blinking enormous problem. We need you, right now."

Meanwhile, far away from the Doctor and his problems, River had issues of her own. She restlessly paced a room which barely had space for a narrow bed and a sanitary facility. Shiny steel walls reflected the dim blue-tinted security lighting in the hallway outside the bars of her cell. A tall figure stood silently, an indistinct shape in the black shadows between those lights. She couldn't hear anything, but River knew the guard was always there. She'd tried talking to the guard, but got no response, except for one time, the day they'd brought her here.

"I'm guessing hallucinogenic lipstick won't work this time." An angry River had told her jailer, her hands gripping the bars. "Not that it matters, I suppose. I'm willing to bet that a kiss would be wasted on someone as ugly as you."

The moment she spoke, the guard swiftly and silently turned to face her, and a fatal looking weapon which River was all too familiar with, was pointed directly at her. She took the hint. With a chill of fear creeping down her spine, River slowly backed away and sat down on the bed, without another word.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

"Now, what's so urgent that you made me drop everything to come here, of all places?" The Doctor asked, after seating himself across a table from her.

Behind his back, silhouetted in white against a red backdrop was the image an old man in with a western string tie and a goatee, smiling benevolently down at everyone. Amy had asked the Doctor to meet her in a popular American fried chicken takeaway, situated not far from Victoria Station.

"Who're they?" Were the first words out of Amy's mouth, as she glanced at Malcolm, then at Major Tibbets.

The Doctor had induced the two U.N.I.T. men to come with him, on the premise that it was his scheduled Time Lord tea break. Malcolm bought that, but the major merely shook his head in disgust. He'd correctly guessed that the Doctor didn't want a curious Malcolm messing about with the ship's controls while he was gone to meet Amy and Rory. What the major didn't grasp, was that the Doctor also didn't want a potentially violent and possibly paranoid soldier left unattended inside the TARDIS.

Malcolm and Major Tibbets were seated at another table. The Doctor had insisted on his privacy. Mainly because he didn't want Amy or Rory to undergo some stupid and time-wasting interrogation by Major Tibbets. Malcolm had taken the opportunity to order the lunch he'd forgotten to have, in his excitement over meeting the Doctor again. The major was sat there, glaring at the Doctor's back, still nursing a slight grudge over his ruined gun.

"Oh, hitchhikers. You know how I am, always giving lifts to strangers."

The Doctor spoke dismissively, sipping orange Fanta from a paper cup, and trying very hard not to show how unhappy he truly was with this unscheduled emergency. After all, Amy was his friend as much as River was, and wasn't nearly so annoying. Still, he didn't like that he'd not heard from anything from River since that last phone call.

"Now, I am just a teensy bit busy today Amy, so are you going to tell me what's going on, or are we going to have to play charades? Tell me we're not, because I really hate charades, and I'm so absolutely not in the mood for party games right now." The Doctor told her severely, but not unkindly.

.

"Jeez, you are a grumpy old fart today." Amy told him, rolling her eyes. "Well, you know Rory and I were at my mum and dad's anniversary party. Well, turns out, dad's allergic to a certain kind of mushroom, and the caterer had chopped them up and put them in the bread stuffing in the roast turkey. Dad always said he hated mushrooms, now we know why. Thank God Rory was there, and we got dad to hospital in time." Amy explained, smiling and giving Rory's hand a squeeze under the table. "Anyway, the doctor said that my dad was going to be fine, so mum convinced Rory and I to spend the rest of the afternoon doing some sight-seeing around London."

"Excuse me for interrupting, Amy," An impatient Doctor told her, conspicuously making a show of looking at his wrist watch, "But is there a short-cut to this story, or am I going to have to endure the guided tour?"

"Yeah, point taken, Doctor. You can put your hand down now." Rory said, as the Doctor waved the hand with the watch in front of his face. "The short of the story is, Amy and I were coming out of Victoria Station, when this antique army ambulance, say about a hundred years old, comes roaring out of a solid wall, right towards us! It nearly ran Amy down! I managed to get her out of the way, but...it hit this other pedestrian, some old homeless bloke. I tried Doctor, I really did try, but couldn't save him though, his injuries were simply too massive. All I could do was hold his hand. I can't begin to imagine how tragic and lonely it must be to die alone, or with no one but strangers around you." Rory added, clearly upset.

The Doctor's mood instantly changed from impatience to understanding. Every time he regenerated, it was like dying, in a way. His old self—his appearance, mannerisms, personality, all died before the new bloke appeared and took over. The only thing that never changed was his mind and his memories. Last time he'd regenerated, he'd had been all alone in the TARDIS. The Doctor recalled how that had felt. He didn't like that feeling. He reached out and gave Rory's shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.

"I know you did, Rory." The Doctor told him. "You did save Amy though, and, you had the courage to care about that homeless man. That's why I consider it such a privilege to travel with someone like you."

"Cheers, Doctor. That means a lot to me." A surprised Rory responded, a grateful smile twitching the corners of his mouth. Still, the Doctor could see the sadness in his eyes.

"It was so weird though," Amy said, thoroughly puzzled over what she'd seen. "The Ambulance drove right over the poor man and just left him there to die. It was horrible." Amy said. "Then it simply vanished again, into thin air." She looked inquiringly into his face. "What's it mean, Doctor?"

"It means, Amy," The Doctor said, leaning forward and lowering his voice so that only she and Rory could hear, "That these rifts in time are getting worse. And, I think I know why."

"What is it, what's going on?" Rory asked. The Doctor didn't answer, only gave him a disquieted look.

A half hour later found them all back in the TARDIS. Pointedly ignoring everyone's questions, the Doctor dashed around and under the console, checking various instrument readings and making calibrations. Then, the phone rang again. Snatching up the receiver, the Doctor's face betrayed his anxiety for River Song's safety.

"Hello, River? Are you OK? Where are you? What the hell is happening?" The Doctor belted out in rapid succession.

Amy and the others watched as there was a long pause. They saw the Doctor's face fall in disappointment, then grow dark and angry. Unconsciously, Amy clasped Rory's hand, as the Doctor's emotional state transmitted itself to her.

"Look, whoever this is, you'd better not harm one hair on River's head, is that understood? Not a hair, or a finger or so much a toenail, am I making myself clear? Because if you do, you will face my wrath, and trust me, when it comes to menacing my friends, you do not want to tick off this particular Time Lord." The Doctor said in a low, foreboding voice.

Slamming down the phone, the Doctor simply stood there staring at the four people who were staring back at him. Then he turned away with a sigh, his shoulders slumped as if in defeat.

"They've taken River...whoever they are. They'll kill her if I don't do as they say." Was all he told them.

"Who was that on the phone, Doctor?" The major demanded.

"If I knew that major, I'd have hardly said, '_whoever they are_', now would I?" The CHAPTER 5

Doctor replied shortly, jamming his hands into the pockets of his trousDoctor replied shortly, jamming his hands into the pockets of his trousers and shaking his head.

"Were you able to trace the call?" Malcolm asked, trying to be helpful.

"No, it was blocked by some sort of interference signal." The Doctor told him.

"What about the caller's voice? Did you recognize it?" another question by the major.

"Cary Grant." The Doctor shrugged.

"What? Look, Doctor, I know you're upset about your friend, but now you're just being ridiculous!" The major said.

"The caller used a CMVR to disguise his or her voice." The Doctor told him.

"A what?" Malcolm asked him.

"They had a computer modulated voice replicator. It can replicate any recorded voice in the universe. Works like a translator, only instead of languages, it translates your voice into someone else's." The Doctor informed him. "Highly illegal. It's use is banned on over ten thousand worlds."

"Is River OK?" Rory asked quietly.

"How should I know?" The frustrated Doctor shouted at him. "Do I look like a clairvoyant to you, Rory?"

Amy was the only one who held back. She walked over to the Doctor and gently laid a hand upon his arm.

"Shouting at Rory isn't going to change anything, Doctor." She chided him gently. "You'll get River back" Amy smiled encouragingly and squeezed his arm, "And, you know River. She's so much like you, she's probably having the time of her life plotting her escape, right now."

"Yeah, yeah, you're probably right, Amy" The Doctor looked down at her, and gave Amy a faint smile, before looking up sheepishly at Rory. "Sorry I shouted at you, Rory."

"Meh.." Rory gave the Doctor a playful jab in the arm and flashed him a forgiving grin. "It's good practice for you, in case, you know, if I ever go deaf from some alien explosion or...something." He joked lamely.

The support of his friends seemed to change the Doctor's attitude in an instant. Smiling affectionately at his two friends, he leaped back to the console and began frantically tweaking the instruments again.

"What are you doing, now, Doctor?" Malcolm asked, following the Doctor around like an excited puppy. "Oooh, what's this do?" He asked, about to touch a particularly strange looking instrument on the console.

"Ow!" He said almost immediately, as the Doctor slapped his hand away from a particularly sensitive TARDIS control.

"If handled incorrectly, it implodes the TARDIS and makes the entire universe collapse." The Doctor answered, as he bent forward, and lay his left cheek against the console.

"Oh." Said Malcolm, completely abashed.

"On the way back to the TARDIS, the Doctor mentioned that you'd helped him before." Amy said, coming to the Doctor's rescue. She tactfully drew Malcolm away from the console. "You know, I bet Rory would really like to hear about that. Why don't you tell him all about it, as he gives you the grand tour of the rest of the TARDIS?"

An unhappy Rory standing behind them, pointed to himself and silently mouthed to her; "_Me? Why me_?" Amy just gave him one of her looks, and rolling his eyes in resignation, he went over to the scientist.

"You mean it's even bigger than this?" A wide-eyed Malcolm turned and asked Rory "Oh, I'd like to see that very much, thank you!"

"And I'd like hearing about all that...sciencey stuff you did...with the Doctor." Rory replied, less than enthusiastically, taking Malcolm by the arm and escorting him up the ramp towards the TARDIS bedrooms, kitchen and library. Rory had the idea that at least there were no dangerous alien gadgets in that part of the ship, for Malcolm to fiddle with.

Keeping his eye on the typewriter two inches from his nose, the Doctor typed something on the keys with his left hand, while his right hand was outstretched as far as it could reach, to adjust a dial at the top of the console, that looked strangely like an ordinary combination lock.

"What's he doing?" The major leaned over and whispered to Amy.

"Beats me." Amy shrugged. "Rory and I just came along for the ride...and the food. The Doctor's a wonderful cook." She added, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "His butter curry chicken is gorgeous."

"You don't say?" the major said patiently, like a parent speaking with a child who was making silly talk around adults, "How very nice of him."

"Ah ha!" The Doctor suddenly shouted, coming upright and flicking a strand of hair from his eyes. He looked at Amy with a proud grin on his face. "That ought'a do it!"

"Do what, Doctor?" Amy asked, looking at the console. She didn't see anything that looked different than before. But then again, the TARDIS was so alien and cobbled together, that she wasn't sure she'd even notice if anything had changed.

"This!" Said the Doctor grandly, flicking a toggle switch with a flourish, like a celebrity turning on the lights at Blackpool.

Nothing happened, except that the console speakers suddenly spewed out static. The Doctor's smile wavered. Glancing over at the major, Amy could see he was very much unimpressed. In fact, he looked decidedly bored. At that moment, Malcolm and Rory re-entered the control room. Rory couldn't answer most of Malcolm's questions, and the scientist didn't display any enthusiasm over Rory's CD collection. As the static penetrated the control room, the two of them glanced around, looking for the source of the noise.

"I'd have thought that he'd have better radio reception than this." Malcolm said, clearly disappointed.

"Yeah, but at least it isn't Radio Four." Rory replied with a shrug.

"White noise." Amy said to the Doctor, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes at the ceiling. "Yeah, that's...great. I hear it's really good for helping people get to sleep."

"Er—sorry. Just one more second, if you please." The Doctor said, somewhat contritely.

"Seriously, what are you doing, Doctor?" Amy asked again.

"What I'm trying to do, Amy," he answered, "is to put that phone call into an auto-analytical noise filter and then use the binary cross link feed to play back the call, but this time, with only the background noise, which, if all goes to plan, will be amplified and cleaned up to make it clearer. " He turned his back on them and made some furious adjustments.

"OK, now this should work," The Doctor said hopefully, turning to face Amy and the major and putting a brave face on."but if it doesn't, I'm sure you'll all get a really restful night's sleep tonight."

Once again, the Doctor flicked the toggle switch. This time, coming through very faintly, was something else besides static. Something that raised that hair on the back of Amy's neck, made the major gasp with shock, and turned the Doctor's face momentarily pale.

"_Monitor the prisoner. If she makes any attempt to escape, exterminate her. Exterminate! Exterminate!_ Grated the deep voice of a Dalek.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

There was complete silence in the TARDIS, as the stunned occupants took in the impact of the deep, grating Dalek voice. Amy looked at the Doctor's face. Maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed to have gone a little pale. He bowed his head head and swallowed hard. She heard him whisper, "Oh River, what have you gotten yourself into, now?"

"Was that a...?" Rory asked, looking worried and pointing at the speaker on the console.

"A Dalek." The Doctor growled with a sudden hard edge to his voice. His eyes went dark and flinty with long-festering anger and hated. Then, the Doctor's demeanor swiftly changed with the about face of a weather cockerel.

"Right!" He shouted with a smile, clapping his two palms together, "This concludes our guided tour of the Doctor's wonderful and mysterious space and time ship." He began trying to herd everyone towards the doors. "Thank you for coming, please exit to through the front door, and don't forget to buy a souvenir TARDIS tee shirt or tea towel on your way out."

"But I only just arrived, I can't leave now!" Malcolm said, clearly disappointed.

"Sorry, Malcolm. I'll come back for you someday when I don't have any friends to rescue from the most evil beings in the universe." the Doctor hurriedly apologized, still trying to steer his friend towards the doors.

"Can't I at least have time to buy a tea towel?" Malcolm asked plaintively.

"How stupid of me, I forgot. I'm all sold out, sorry. Maybe next time." The Doctor lied.

"Really Doctor," Major Tibbets huffed, "I must say that your behaviour is even more eccentric than the U.N.I.T. files claim."

"Really?" The Doctor said, genuinely pleased at hearing this. "How very kind of you to say so, major."

"Honestly, Doctor." The major told him, like a stern parent admonishing a hyperactive child, "I insist that you allow us to stay on board your ship, as representatives of Earth in this matter."

"Sorry, last call. Closing bell, clang-clang. " The Doctor said, getting a bit flustered that no one seemed to be moving towards the doors. "I insist that you leave. All four of you. A good guest should always know when to leave."

"Wait!" Amy protested, grabbing his arm. When he stopped, she looked up at his face. "Why do we have to leave? I have faced Daleks before, Doctor. Winston Churchill, the bunker, remember? And Rory shot one in the museum, we both remember that...sort of."

"Then you remember what the one in the museum did to me, Amy." The Doctor countered soberly. "Remember that? And that one was weakened by the effects of the collapse of time. These are probably fully operational Daleks. Deadliest and must ruthless creatures in the universe. I won't let you or anyone else near them. I won't be responsible for your deaths. I already have too many..." His voice cut off as the Doctor took a deep breath. He shook his head sadly. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he said more gently, "Amy, any other time I'd love to have you along, I mean that. But, I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to you...or Rory. I really am sorry, but this time I have to go solo, I can't take you with me."

Without warning, the control room lights went out, the emergency lights went on, and they were all five of them very nearly jerked off their feet, as the TARDIS suddenly gave a great shudder. Then, just as abruptly, she settled. The Doctor looked alarmed, as he felt his ship being yanked upwards by some powerful force. The Central column was completely still, and other than the initial violent movement, there was no other indication that they were moving. But, the Doctor knew.

"Doctor," Amy asked, trying not to be scared, "What's happening?"

"What's going on?" The major bawled out angrily.

"Some kind of inter-planetary transmaterialization field, I'm guessing." The Doctor shouted, running over to the console to check the readings.

"The inter what?" Rory asked, still protectively holding Amy to steady her, even though the the TARDIS was now completely still.

"Ooh, You mean, like some kind of transmat beam, Doctor?" Malcolm said eagerly, always fascinated by any new technology he encountered.

"Yes." The Doctor replied tersely, as he worked feverishly at the console, trying to re-gain control of his ship. "Exactly like that, Malcolm. The Daleks have locked on to the TARDIS and are transporting us somewhere. Probably to their ship."

"How do you know that?" Amy asked him. She was startled to see the somber, haunted look on the Doctor's face, when he slowly turned around and stared at her.

"Because this has happened before." The Doctor told her grimly. "The last time the Daleks came to earth in your current time stream. When strange planets filled the sky. The attack you and Rory didn't remember, Amy. The Daleks captured my TARDIS and brought it on board their ship. There was nothing I could do to stop them."

Just then, the TARDIS jolted again with a great bump. The Doctor swallowed and sweat broke out on his forehead. He wanted to make his friends and the major stay on board, but knew that Dalek technology could very well detect how many life forms were on board. He stared helplessly at the TARDIS doors, knowing that they'd all have to go out there any second now, and face the wrath of the Daleks.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"_Doc-toooor!_" A deep grating Dalek voice filled the inside of the TARDIS console room. Everyone, even the Doctor, felt a tremor of fear, as the sound echoed around the now dim interior. To Amy, it felt like the voice of doom. "_You and your companions will surrender yourselves to the Daleks, or all on board will die and your TARDIS will be destroyed_." The voice commanded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt to prove it.." The Doctor muttered. Then, taking a deep breath, he struck his best cavalier attitude. Tugging on his bow tie to make sure it was straight, he said to his friends, "Shall we go out and greet our hosts? Bad form to show up late for a party, you know. I do hope they've got a good DJ this time. Last time they had a polka band. That was rubbish."

Before opening the TARDIS door, the Doctor stood in front of his four companions and laid the situation out for them, as simply and bluntly as possible.

"I want you all to listen to me carefully." He told them gravely, "These are the deadliest creatures in all of creation. As in ever. I want you all to understand that. Especially you, major." The Doctor said, giving the man a steely glare. "I know you military blokes love to go charging in like Custer with the Seventh Cavalry, but we all know what happened to him. I should know, I was there."

The major frowned and harrumphed. Malcolm, giving the major a sidelong glance, gulped in apprehension. A worried Amy looked at Rory. He reached over, gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile and clasped her hand.

"Alright you lot," The Doctor explained, "Dalek meet and greet procedure: Do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances do anything which might provoke them. That's my job. They can't shake hands so no worries there, but most definitely don't try to kiss them. They hate that. Do whatever they tell you to do. If you don't, you're dead. Full stop. And, whatever happens, stay close to me."

"OK, OK." The Doctor whispered to himself as he turned away from them, affectionately patting the TARDIS door, before pulling it open, "Geronimo."

The five of them walked out of the TARDIS. The human contingent all stared around them with a mixture of fear and wonder. What they saw was an enormous room with stainless steel walls, gleaming blue & yellow from lights set into the ceilings. The walls were slightly curved, bending to the rounded lines of the ship they were on. Scattered around the flight deck were banks of machinery used for ship's operations and navigation, as well as various weapons consoles. On a raised platform in front of them, was the large shadowy form of the Central Command Dalek.

All around the floor were small squads of soldier Daleks, standing immobile in neat rows, like soldiers awaiting inspection by some dignitary. Some more of them were stationed on a gantry that ran along the walls high above. Two Daleks were acting as security guards, with weapons trained on the captives. The others in the room didn't even seem to notice them. As Amy watched, several Daleks smoothly whirred past her group, getting on with the business of running the ship. Amy reckoned there must've been a few hundred of them, all told. She wondered how many more there were. Probably thousands, judging by the size of the ship.

Glaring balefully at the Command Dalek, the Doctor was far less impressed. Thinking of the possible fate of the four people standing behind him, he suddenly was feeling a great weight of responsibility. They shouldn't be here. Funny, the Doctor thought, how he'd never felt like that when he was younger. Certainly, as he aged, more and more he'd grown to care about the welfare of his friends. Yet, in his earlier regenerations he'd always taken the stance that they had chosen to be with him, and therefore acted on their own responsibility. He pondered what had caused his change of hearts. But, he knew. Their names were Rose, Martha, Donna, Wilf and Amy.

"_The humans will be taken to detention area sixteen. The Doctor will remain here_." The Central Command Dalek ordered his subordinates.

The Dalek's voice shook the Doctor out of his thoughts. He desperately tried to think of a way out of the situation, but knew that for the moment at least, he was entirely helpless to do anything at all. Still, he had to try.

"Why? What do you need me for? Let the humans go, they are harmless, and no threat to you." The Doctor asked. He knew it wouldn't listen. There was no negotiating with homicidal sociopaths like the Daleks. One usually couldn't reason with violent thugs, bigots, racists or bullies, because by their very nature, they were completely irrational.

"As representative of Earth, I wish to speak on their behalf..." Major Tibbets began, stepping forward.

"Ix-nay on the Earth-ay!" The Doctor hissed, trying to drag the major back.

But, it was too late. "_You speak for the hu-mans?_" The harsh voice of the Command Dalek asked the major.

"I do." The man answered, tearing his elbow away from the Doctor's grasp.

"In other words, shut up and keep back!" the Doctor whispered more fiercely, when Tibbets chose to ignore him.

"_We have only one message for Earth_." The Central Command Dalek said.

"What is it you wish to say to them?" the major asked it, standing almost unconsciously at parade dress.

"No!" The Doctor shouted, as the Central Command Dalek answered the major.

"_EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTER-MIN-AATE_!"

Without further warning, the two guard Daleks fired. As the man twisted about and screamed in mortal agony, his body glowed green, clearly revealing the outline of his skeleton. Major Tibbets was dead before he hit the floor. Then, the two Daleks turned. They aimed their weapons on Malcolm, Rory and Amy.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Doctor stood horrified, feeling utterly helpless, as the two Dalek guards took aim at his friends. He was fully prepared to throw himself in front of Amy. Better him than her. There was always the slim chance that he might survive to regenerate. Then, just when he was sure they'd be killed, the Central Command Dalek ordered their lives to be spared. Mentally, the Doctor gave a great sigh of relief, but forced his face to appear neutral.

"Amy, Rory, Malcolm. If you want to stay alive, stand perfectly still and don't say a word, not one single word. Whatever happens in the next few minutes, do not interfere." The Doctor told them staidly. Towards the Dalek on the raised platform he squinted his eyes and tilted his head, his mind already questioning the reason why they were all still breathing. The Doctor hooked his thumbs in his braces and said suspiciously, "You're not sparing their lives out of the goodness of your heart, because you don't have one. So the million pound question is, what do you want?".

"_Prisoners may not ask questions. They must obey. OBEY! OBEY! O-BEEY!_ " The Central Command Dalek ordered.

"Oh do be quiet. I heard you the first time. It's like listening to a broken heavy metal record. The same loud notes playing over and over again. Let me tell you, that sort of thing is very un-cool." The Doctor told it dismissively, shaking his head and stepping away slightly from his friends. "In my experience, anyone who has to shout, does so because they don't want you to think too hard about what they're actually saying. If you need to hurl threats or abuse to make your point, either you're an idiot, or you don't have a moral leg—or in your case, a tentacle, to stand on."

The Doctor's eyes darkened, his face suddenly showing the full power and contempt of a Time Lord. As he stepped forward a pace, the two guards actually moved ever so slightly away from him.

"You know you can't intimidate me. I'm the blinking Oncoming Storm. You can shout at me till the proverbial cows come home, and all you'll do is make me yawn and reach for some aspirin. So why don't you stop threatening me and my friends here, and just cut to the chase and tell me what you want."

Surprisingly, the Dalek didn't kill him.. The Doctor took that as a good sign. He didn't always enjoy telling them off. Somehow, the Doctor felt like a parent who was continuously having to reprimand a mean and disrespectful child. Or in this case, a highly temperamental, volatile alien with advanced technology and lethal weaponry. If the Doctor didn't know any better—and after his long history with these most deadliest of enemies, he liked to think that he did, he'd have sworn that the Dalek staring down at him from the platform was somewhat taken aback by his attitude. After a long pause, the creature spoke.

"_We are having difficulties operating alien technology. We need a Time Lord_." The Central Command Dalek begrudgingly admitted."

"And what makes you think that I'd ever help you?" The Doctor sniffed. Although he was afraid that he already knew the answer to that.

"_We have a female prisoner. And we have these three humans_. _If you do not help us, they will all be exterminated_."

"Yeah, I thought as much." The Doctor admitted, frowning at the Dalek. "And what happens if I do help you? Afterwards you'll simply kill them anyway, and probably a lot of other people as well."

"_If you do not agree to help us, you will watch the other prisoners die, one by one, before we probe your brain for the information we require. You will not survive the process_." The Central Command Dalek said.

The Doctor sucked in his breath as the two guard Daleks moved closer to his friends. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the three of them standing white-faced and motionless. Rory had his arm curled protectively around Amy's shoulder, while a wide-eyed Malcolm stood close beside them, staring down at the body of Major Tibbets. The Daleks knew him a little too well, it seemed. The Doctor heard their guns click into firing position.

"Alright, alright! Point taken." He sighed, holding up his hands in surrender. "Let's not be too hasty here. Why don't you explain to me what this so-called alien technology is, and why you need my help with it." The Doctor said, rocking back on his heels, and regarding the Central Command Dalek peevishly. "I don't like making instant, uninformed decisions about things. I'm not one of those people who only get their information from one source and then never question any of it. I like questions, me. Love 'em. The only truly stupid question is the one that's never asked. So tell me, why are you lot messing about with Earth's history?"

"_We possess a weapon which was given to us by a prisoner in exchange for his freedom_." The Central Command Dalek told him. _"But our engineers have not been able to perfect its use. They have been experimenting with this weapon, focusing on a specific year of Earth's history. When we have mastered its use, we will use this weapon to create a multi-dimensional negation known as a Time Submersion Antithesis . By manipulating the time lines and bringing Earth's past into its future, we will void out the humans entire history, and they will all cease to exist throughout time and space._"

"But, you can't!" The Doctor shouted, his face and voice suddenly filled with a mixture of disbelief and fear. In his horror at what the Daleks were planning, he forgot all about the armed guards and strode up the base of the platform, and stood looking up at the Central Command Dalek. "With a weapon like that, you'll not only make the human race disappear, but all of time could collapse! Even you would cease to exist. This is utterly mad, even for a Dalek!"

"_Nevertheless, Doctor, we will use it. With or without you_." The Central Command Dalek told him, lowering his eyestalk as if talking to the Doctor was almost beneath him. If a Dalek could sneer, this one would have been.

For a moment, the Doctor was tempted to let them try it on their own. Maybe it would be worth it, if it meant the end of the Dalek race. If he'd been alone, perhaps he would have. But then he thought about all of his human friends of past, present and future. They would be wiped from existence. He couldn't allow that to happen. The longer that he postponed their deaths, the better chance they all had of escaping, however slim that may be.

"And if I help you, then what?" The Doctor asked softly, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking down at his booted feet. "All of my friends will no longer exist. You're asking me to kill them. I can't do that. Not ever."

"_But they are alive now, Doctor." _The Central Command Dalek told him. _"They can die here, in pain and suffering, or they can painlessly disappear after the weapon has been deployed. The choice is yours. Only a Time Lord can fully understand this technology. The prisoner escaped before he could instruct us in its use._"

"What sort of prisoner gave you this weapon?" The doctor asked. "Where did it come from?"

"_The prisoner was one of your own species. The weapon is of Time Lord design._" The Dalek told him.

"Captured in the Time War, I suppose." The Doctor said.

"_No, the prisoner was captured fleeing through a warp star wormhole two Earth years ago_." The Command Dalek informed him.

"But...that's impossible." The Doctor said, shaking his head at the absurdity of it all. "I'm the last of my kind. Who was this prisoner?"

"_He is the Time Lord who calls himself the Master_." The Central Command Dalek said.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

River sat upright. She'd been sitting on the floor of her cell, dozing, having had little sleep in the past forty-eight hours. Daleks didn't provide their prisoners with much in the way of amenities. Her cell contained only a small and not very private loo in one corner. Something had woken her. Then she knew. Other prisoners were coming, possibly human. Maybe it was the Doctor. She could hear their footsteps, amid the quiet whir of the few Daleks accompanying them. The Dalek guarding her cell silently raised its eyestalk. It's single eye followed River, as she got up and approached the bars.

"Relax, sweetcheeks," she murmured sarcastically, gripping the bars and craning her head to see, "I'm just here to take in the view. " As she tried to see down the dark, blue-tinted corridor, River noted that the Dalek's eyestalk was looking her up and down, seeking any body language signaling aggression. "You know, in a certain light," She said whimsically, "when I'm really tired, I might think you Daleks aren't half sexy...well, I might if I was some pervert who got off on squishy green psychopaths who live their entire lives inside an artificial environment. Thankfully, I'm not."

"_The prisoner will be silent._" The Dalek grated at her.

"And, you're lousy conversationalists. No wonder no one ever sees you hanging out in the pub with your mates after a hard day of killing." She whispered to herself. The Dalek started to raise its weapon. "Alright, alright, mum's the word." River told it, suddenly not looking so flippant. Respectful of the power behind the gun, she held up her hands and moved away from the bars.

"That looks like River!" Amy shouted, as the Doctor and his companions approached the detention area.

"So it is." The Doctor said, trying not to show too much how relieved he was to see River. "Fancy that." Despite his false nonchalance, the Doctor couldn't help himself. He gave River a lopsided grin and said, "We really need to stop meeting like this, you know. What is it with you and prisons, anyway?"

"Oh, that's right, you're not into bondage in this regeneration." River replied cheekily. "Whoops—sorry,." she whispered, giving him a sly wink, "spoilers."

"_Silence_!" The Dalek behind him ordered.

"Nah, don't think so," the Doctor shrugged, "having too much fun. Life with the Daleks is just one big situation comedy. Take the Emperor of the Daleks, for instance. Now, he was a funny old dude. Thought he was God...and then he died. Such a shame he didn't come back to life. But then, no gods are perfect...or so Chronos once told me. Bearing in mind he was still holding a grudge against Zeus, and no one can hold a grudge like a genuine god, let me tell you..."

The Dalek in the lead whirled around and pointed his weapon at the Doctor's chest. The other Dalek's stopped, as well.

"_Do not profane Emperor of the Daleks_!" The lead Dalek shrieked, practically shaking with rage.

"OK, alright then." The Doctor said humbly, "I apologize for the Emperor Dalek being a funny old dude." The Daleks still had their guns aimed at him. "Sorry, Forgot who I was talking to for a minute there." The Doctor spat out, his face suddenly darkening with anger. "Daleks can't be funny. Or happy, or even pleasantly cheerful. You lot only thrive of negative emotions, like mushrooms, you grow best in darkness and dung."

The head Dalek guard simply stood there, silently regarding the Doctor for a moment. Then, he turned away. It was if it knew that the Doctor's words were being used as weapons, and therefore to be disregarded, because to a Dalek, words were the weapons of weaklings. Leading the way, the head Dalek told the others of his kind to place Amy, Rory and Malcolm in the cell with River. Malcolm gave an involuntary start, as the cell door clanged shut behind him.

The head Dalek guard then personally escorted the Doctor to an shallow alcove set into the wall, across from River's cell. There, a beam of light came down, a bright circle entrapping the Doctor in one small area. He looked up and frowned at its source in the ceiling, and wondered if he could sonic it without triggering alarms all over the ship. Probably not, but it might work as a distraction. The prison wasn't meant for comfort. It was meant to put prisoners under stress and exhaustion, to wear them down and weaken them. The area of the cell was was too small for him to sit or even move very much.

The head Dalek instructed the other guards to keep close watch on the prisoners, before it went back to make its report to the Central Command Dalek.

"Wow, you look..." Amy said, staring at River.

"A tad overdressed?" Rory finished for her.

"Stop it, Rory. No, you look beautiful, River...for a prisoner, I mean." Amy said, annoyed at Rory for finishing her sentence for her. She hated that.

River Song was standing there, smiling. She was dressed in a full length royal blue and gold sequined evening gown, replete with elbow length gold silk gloves and matching glittery flats, which sparkled even in the prison area's low lighting conditions. Her hair was done up in an elaborate fashion, complemented by a small diamond and sapphire tiara. The Doctor also, was staring. He looked at her, his eyes askance. River raised a sarcastic eyebrow at him, and curtsied. He only snorted in reply.

"Oh come on, Doctor," Amy said, noting his response. "admit it, she looks nice."

"If those shoes were ruby red," he said, staring at her sparkling togs, "you could click your heels together three times in be back home in Kansas in time for tea. No wonder the Daleks captured you. How could they miss you? Must've been a sight, trying to out-run them in that get-up."

Unable to help himself, Rory snickered, and got a kick in the shin from Amy. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, you look...really nice, River."

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Don't encourage her."

As the others continued to speak among themselves, the Doctor's mind pondered the words of the Dalek leader. Did the Master really escape from his battle with Rassilon? The Doctor reached out with his mind. But, that hollow echo of emptiness, that severed mental tie with his people, was still there. The abject despondancy of total loss constantly haunted him, even though he tried to push it away, to get on with his life. Yet, as unlikely as it seemed, the Doctor knew it that with the Master, the unlikely had often proved itself to be quite true. The TARDIS gave him something to hold on to, like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man. He knew he'd have long been lost without her. And, even though he and the Master were sworn enemies, the very fact of the Master's existance, the knowledge that he wasn't the last of his species, gave him a reason to hope, to dream, to believe in his own future again.

"I think you look lovely, miss." Malcolm said, smiling for the first time, and holding out his hand. "Hello, I'm Malcolm."

"The name's River Song," she told him, shaking his hand. "Bet you're sorry you went for a ride in the TARDIS, now. Never meet your heroes, they say. And they're probably right."

"You can say that again." Rory mumbled under his breath.

"Erm—actually, no I'm not sorry. Well, not really." Malcolm told her. "I admit I'm a bit scared though. But...it's the Doctor! And the TARDIS! And, I'm on an alien space ship!"

"Yes, I am aware of that." River nodded..

"I know exactly what you mean. Hard to resist, isn't it?" Amy agreed with Malcolm, patting him on the shoulder. " It's like eating hot buttered popcorn or a packet of your favourite crisps. Once you open those TARDIS doors, you can't stop yourself."

" I've always dreamed of this, ever since I joined U.N.I.T., and what's the point of dreams," Malcolm reasoned, "if you turn down the opportunity to fulfill one when it comes along?"

"Exactly!" Amy agreed enthusiastically.

"Like the opportunity of us getting married, then having to wait 'till after I died and came back to life as a plastic Roman action figure?" Rory said sardonically. Malcolm looked at him strangely, while Amy merely let out a martyred sigh.

"But, we did get married eventually, Rory." she told him patiently, with the unspoken meaning of _So_ _shut up about it already_! in her voice.

"Although, my first duty is to the people of Earth, of course." Malcolm continued, "If they'd needed me back in London in defence of the planet, I would have had to stay behind and do my duty. I'm only sorry the major wouldn't listen back there. The Doctor knows what he's on about. He's sharp as a tack, that one, nothing gets by him." Malcolm said, motioning towards the Doctor, standing in the glaring white circle of his cell.

"Hang on Amy, hold the phone a minute," the Doctor interrupted them with a frown, "did you actually just compare TARDIS travel with eating a packet of crisps?"

Abruptly, the conversation was interrupted by a three-dimensional flat screen projection appearing out of thin air, in front of the Doctor's cell.

"_Doc-tor_!" Said the Central Command Dalek, as his image flickered on the screen floating above the Doctor's head.

"Yeah, that's my name, don't wear it out." The Doctor replied flatly, wondering what new hell the Daleks were conjuring up for him. He didn't have long to wait.

"_To ensure that you help us with the time submersion device, a demonstration will be given, to show you what will happen if you fail._" The Central Command Dalek told him.

"No!" The Doctor said incredulously, his hands clenched. He watched helplessly, an iceberg of dread suddenly settling into the pit of his stomach, as the Dalek guard faced the humans in the cell and aimed it's weapon arm at them. "I will help you, I give you my word as a Prydonian, I give you my word as the last of the Time Lords! Just leave my friends alone!" He pleaded, looking up desperately at the projection hovering above.

"Get back, all of you!" River shouted, putting herself in front of Amy, Rory and Malcolm as the Dalek outside the cell edged closer to the bars.

"No, River! You can't!" The Doctor yelled desperately, sending ripples around the white confining beams of his cell, as he surged against it.

"Doctor, I-" River began, looking across into the Doctor's eyes, silently trying to convey her feelings.

River's voice was cut off by the discordant, high-pitched sound of the Dalek's death ray. The flash of its beam in the subdued lighting of the prison block was reflected on the Doctor's white, horror-stricken face. It was followed immediately by a terrible scream.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Silence fell over the prisoners. The Dalek guard who'd discharged his weapon lowered his eyestalk and looked down at the body lying on the cell floor. Feeling both anguished and infuriated, the Doctor tore his eyes away from the sight and glared up at the Central Command Dalek's image on the Screen floating above the cell's corridor.

"That was totally unnecessary." He growled, "I already gave you my word that I would help you. That was a completely pointless killing, and you know it."

"_Nothing the Daleks do is ever pointless, Doctor._" The Central Command Dalek told him, "_The death of the human was very necessary. We have now shown you that we do not make threats. We have proved to you that your friends will die if you do not help us. The remaining humans will continue to live, as long as you do as we say and obey without question_."

"_Obeeey! Obeeey!_" Chorused the Dalek guards, like a pair of demented parrots.

With Rory holding her tightly, Amy looked away from the Dalek on the screen, to the Doctor. He had gone pale, and seemed almost like he was going to be physically ill. Catching her eye, The Doctor simply stared blankly at her. Amy sucked in her breath. In all the time she'd known him, she'd never seen him appear so utterly helpless and defeated. The Doctor suddenly looked very sad and lost, and that almost scared her as much as the Daleks.

.Rory softly asked Amy for her denim jacket she'd been wearing. She was about to ask what for, then realized why Rory needed it. Taking it from her, he knelt down, and respectfully placed it over Malcolm's body. He closed the man's staring eyes, but couldn't do anything about the pained, shocked expression, which death had left frozen forever on the scientist's face.

At the Central Command Dalek's orders, one of the guards raised the barrier of the Doctor's cell. At gunpoint, the Doctor was escorted away to the lab where he was expected to work on the Dalek's new weapon. The Doctor went quietly, without a word or look at Amy or Rory.

However, just for a second, Amy saw him turn and stare over his shoulder at River. He gazed at her with an unfathomable expression, before a nudge from the Dalek behind him, made him turn away . Within moments, the Doctor was lost to their view, as he was marched off down the dim corridor. The remaining Dalek guard stood outside their cell, silent and unmoving, but with his weapon arm pointing at them.

Several minutes passed, before River whispered into Rory's ear. Seconds later, Rory nudged Amy and whispered to her.

"It's all your fault!" He said out loud. Displaying anger and distress, he began to pace, moving away from River and Amy to the other side of the cell. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't gone traipsing off with the Doctor."

"Er-oh yeah, Rory," Amy replied, trying to think of some suitable retort, "well, you could've stayed safely behind in London, eating chicken and chips. No one forced to to come with me."

"Silence!" The Dalek ordered.

Rory saw the Dalek's eyestalk focusing on them, before rounding on Amy again. "You're my wife, Amy. In case you didn't noticed that bit at our wedding, we pledged to honour and obey. You said let's go with the Doctor, I honoured your orders and flippin' obeyed!"

"You're so full of it, Rory!" Amy said shaking her head and going over to Rory. The Dalek came right up to the bars, its eyestalk intently shifting from one of them to the other, every time they spoke, as if it were watching some verbal tennis match. "I didn't order you to go anywhere! I merely suggested that we go with the Doctor. There's no contract that says that you have to follow my every suggestion. I'm your wife, not your mum!"

"_The prisoners will be silent_!" The Dalek ordered again. The two of them both deliberately ignored it and kept on fighting.

"Ha! That's rich, Amy! If I don't do as you ask, every time, you go off in a huff and pout like a little girl!" Rory shouted back. "I might as well have a blinking ring in my nose for you to lead me around with."

"I do not pout like a little girl!" Amy shouted back.

"Yes. You do!" Rory told her.

"No, I don't!" Amy told him, crossing her arms and pouting like a little girl.

"Look at you!" Rory retorted, "You're pouting right now! I told you so!"

In the meantime, while the Dalek was focused on Rory and Amy, River had reached surreptitiously into a hidden pocket in her gown, and pulled out a small cobalt blue vial of what appeared to be spray cologne. As the young couple continued their pretense of a marital squabble, River slowly and carefully sidled closer to the Dalek.

Amy noticed that River was trying to get closer to their guard, so she abruptly get go with an "Oh yeah? I'll show you who pouts!" and decked Rory with a right cross.

.Rory yelled, "Ow!" and fell to the floor. It was then that the Dalek opened the cell.

"_You will be silent, or you will be exterminated!" _ It shrieked at them, it's eyestalk entirely focused on Rory's prone body.

Without warning, River stuck her hand in front of the Dalek, and let go with a couple of sprays of the perfume. Immediately, the Dalek rounded on her, bringing it's gun arm to bear. Suddenly, it stopped, seemed to give a little wobble, and it's weapon abruptly lowered.

"_Hey baby, what's your sign_?_" _It said to River Song_, _the Dalek's voice going strangely soft_, "I find you very sexy_._ Can I buy you a drink?_"

Dropping their pseudo-fight, Amy and Rory stopped short and boggled at the Dalek.

"What the hell?" Rory said, completely taken by surprise by the Dalek's precipitous change in demeanor.

"Hallucinogenic perfume mixed with psychic nasal spray. The Daleks have been studying Earth's history, now one of them is re-living it." She smirked. "I've made it think that it's 1978 and he's a balding, middle aged American stock broker clubbing at the Studio 54 disco in New York City." River explained, as she ushered them out of the cell and locked the Dalek inside. "They took my gun, but this" She said, holding up the bottle before slipping it back into her pocket, "registered as harmless on their weaponry scans, so the Daleks never bothered to take it from me."

As they went down the corridor, River stopped every few feet, to check for surveillance equipment. When she spied something, she had Amy and Rory duck down and carefully go around its field of vision.

"Where are we going?" Amy asked, holding Rory's sweaty hand. Sweaty hands. Without even looking at her husband, she knew now that he was just as scared and nervous as she was. Somehow that was strangely reassuring.

"We," River said, while doing a limbo-like maneuver under a movement sensor she'd spied, set at chest height into either side of the corridor, "are going to rescue the Doctor, get back the TARDIS, blow up this ship and then get the hell out of here...if Daleks don't find and exterminate us first, that is"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

As River lead Amy and Rory around the last corner leading out of the prison, she accidentally stepped on a pressure plate. Hidden underneath the floor, it's instruments were set to detect any non-Dalek weight. Since all Daleks—except for the Central Command Dalek, weighed exactly the same, the pressure of River's foot on the sensor automatically triggered an alarm. The three of them stopped cold, as a hooter began to echo through the prison block.

"Oh dear," River said softly, "Looks like we're about to be exterminated."

The Doctor's face was beaded with sweat. It wasn't that it was warm in the lab where he was working, so much as the fact that the instruments he was working on were delicate and complex. One wrong setting on his sonic screwdriver could literally unravel time throughout the universe. It didn't help that he had two Daleks standing over his shoulder, carefully watching his every move.

Around him, the lab was as sterile looking as the rest of the ship, with function taking precedence over form. Its white walls were lined with banks of computers, while in the centre of the room black tables held various measuring instruments and glass beakers filled with coloured fluids. There were no chairs or other comforts. The Doctor had to work on the machinery sitting cross-legged on the hard floor.

His sonic screwdriver hummed, as the Doctor sonicked some red and black wires held in his other hand. The green glow from its tip reflected in the Doctor's face, as he held them close to make sure he was working in exactly the right place.

"Is it really necessary for you two to stand so close?" The Doctor muttered crossly, "It's a good thing you lot don't have proper mouths, I'd hate to know what your breath smells like. Bet it doesn't half stink. I'd lay odds at the bookmakers that not one of you has brushed your teeth in a thousand years. If you lot still had teeth, that is."

"_It is necessary._" The Dalek on his left, said. "_Daleks do not have need of teeth. Teeth are a weakness_." Remarked the other on on the right.

"Oh, I dunno' about that." The Doctor told the Dalek on the right. "I love my teeth, me. Great for biting into a toffee apple, and very handy for smiling. You can do a lot with a smile. Make someone's day better, you can even save a life with just a smile. It's amazing what a little kindness can do, you know."

The pair of Daleks merely stood watching at him, neither one stirring or speaking.

"Not exactly preaching to the choir, am I?." The Doctor said to himself with a resigned sigh, turning back to the task at hand.

Whomever of his people designed this weapon, he or she had made it so that only a fellow Time Lord could truly grasp its inner-workings. Like many things invented on Galifrey, the device was a combination of old and new, cobbled together in an intricate mathematical patten. Encased inside a black box the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, were a conglomeration of micro-fiber optics, an anubian abstract chronograph, nano-technology, copper wiring and old-fashioned brass clockworks.

"_Doc-tor_!" Came the voice of the Central Command Dalek, as once again its image flickered on a screen above the Doctor's head.

"Oh, what is it now?" The Doctor muttered, not bothering to look up. "Can't you see I'm busy? Nag-nag-nag, that's all you do. You sound like an old fish wife.. Though I imagine your fish and chips would be really rubbish, and I dread to see what you'd call mushy peas..."

"_Silence_! _Do not interrupt me when I am speaking_!" The Command Dalek bellowed angrily.

"Oh yeah? What're ya' gonna' do? Exterminate me?" The Doctor said, raising dark, angry eyes to glare up at the screen. "Then who's gonna' make this new weapon of yours actually work, ey? 'Cos if I don't set this exactly right, everything dies. Not just you and me and every human being, but everything. You understand? The entire universe, all that ever was, is and ever will be, will cease to exist. Time itself will unravel like a cheap jumper from Asda, and there will be nothing. Not even the blackness of empty space. So sod off and let me get on with my work!" With that, the Doctor went back to sonicking the wires, completely ignoring the Daleks.

"_You have exactly one hour to finish your work, Doctor." T_ he Central Command Dalek told him_. "Then one of your companions will be brought before you and you will watch the human die._" With that, the screen winked out, and the Doctor was left alone again with his two guards.

The Doctor pretended to be engrossed in sonicking the wires, but in reality, he'd changed the setting so all the screwdriver was doing was making lots of noise. He needed time to think. Why were the Daleks suddenly in such a hurry to have him finish the device? He was forming a idea, and hoped it was the right one. Now, all he needed to do was keep looking busy...

It was dark, musty and cramped for space. Rory felt hot, had sore knees and was growing increasingly unhappy. He had to admit though, that he couldn't complain about the view. Rory was last in line, crawling on his hands and knees inches behind Amy's bottom. Using a small penlight, taken from the same hidden pocket as the vial of perfume, River lead them down yet another ventilation duct. As she did, Rory prayed that neither of the girls was prone to farting when under stress.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Amy muttered. "I feel like I'm in some kind of film cliché, escaping from the villains through ventilation shafts."

"Yes, and those villains will find us and kill us, if you don't shut up, Amy!" River scolded her.

After what seemed to be hours, yet was really no more than twenty minutes, River finally found an exit she deemed was safe. They seemed to be in some sort of storage area. Amy and Rory started looking for a way out. River was busy checking for more surveilence equipment. Amy was asking where they were, when River shushed her. She hated being shushed, and was about to protest. But then common sense took over and Amy did as she was told.

River had shushed Amy because she'd thought she'd heard something. She motioned for Amy and Rory to hide behind a stack of large metallic storage bins. River was too far away from the bins, and instead crawled back into the darkness of the air duct. A door slid open on the other side of the room, which in the darkness they'd somehow missed. Framed in the open doorway was the bulk of a Dalek. River watched the blue light of it's artificial eye swivel back and forth, searching the room.

Meanwhile, in the prison holding area, four Daleks converged on River's former cell. They saw the Dalek guard inside. It was moving back and forth with a pendulum motion. It swung over to the cell bars when it saw the other Daleks approach.

"_Hey guys, how's it hangin'?_" it said cheerfully.

"_What are you doing?_" Demanded one of the Daleks.

"_I am shaking my bootie, baby._" The tripping Dalek told them.

_Stop! Such actions are not within your parameters!" The Dalek ordered._

"_Chill out, man! I'm having too much fun_." The Dalek in the cell responded.

"_You are defective. Prepare to be exterminated_!" The Dalek told it.

The Dalek in the cell ignored the others, and began to swing back and forth again, singing, "_Ah-ah-ha-ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.._."

The cell block lit up with green light, as the whine of four Dalek guns echoed in the corridor, followed by the sound of the hallucinating Dalek exploding out of existence.

The voice of the Central Command Dalek suddenly filled the corridor. "_Report_!"

"_The prisoners have escaped._" The Dalek who'd just ordered the execution said. "_Their guard was damaged and has been exterminated_."

"_The Doctor must complete his work on the device." _ Their commander told them_. "He must not know that they are no longer under our control. Find the prisoners! Find them or you will all be exterminated!_"

Inside the storage area, Amy and Rory were crouched down behind a bin, holding their breaths as a Dalek came trundling towards them. As it rounded the corner of the storage bins, it saw them. Rory instinctively put himself in front of his wife.

"_Stay where you are_! _Do not move_!" The Dalek screeched.

Taking great care, River crawled out of the square hole in the wall. The position of the Dalek was such that it could not see her. She went towards it in a crouch, intent on spraying the Dalek with hallucinogenic perfume, the same as she did with their now-dead guard. Silently working her way behind it, River reached into her pocket for the bottle. Her hand came away empty. The vial was gone!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Without hesitation, River grabbed a silvery looking tarpaulin which was lying on the floor near her feet, and threw it over the Dalek's head. Crouched on the floor, Amy and Rory gaped at the Dalek, as it suddenly began spinning in circles and bumping into the stacked bins. River frowned. She immediately worried that the noise it made as it hit the metal bins, and its cries of distress, would bring other Daleks to its aid.

"_Arrrgh_! _Can't see_! _Can't see_! V_ision impaired_! _Help meee—_!" The Dalek screamed.

"You lot always act so butch. But, the minute something goes wrong, you cry for your mummies. You're not tough," River said, as she leaped on to the Dalek, her long blue dress flaring out behind her, "you're just loud and mean and have no regard for anyone by yourselves. You're about as tough as candy floss. Now me," She calmly muttered, still clinging to the Dalek, as it bumped it's way around the room,. "I'm tough. You won't catch me whinging when things aren't going my way. I prefer to take the bull by the horns...or the Dalek by its gun arm. Makes life much more interesting, I think."

While River was speaking, one hand was searching under the tarp, looking for a hidden catch release on its external armour. The other hand was forcing the Dalek's gun downward, where it wouldn't do any harm if it went off. She hoped. The Dalek continued to moan and cry out for help.

Amy yelled for River to look out, as the Dalek almost slammed the both of them into some machinery near the far wall. Rory thought that River looked as if she were on some sort of lunatic fun fair ride. When Amy surged up to go and help the woman, Rory held her back. As he did, the Dalek's gun went off.

The gun sent a beam of energy straight down into the floor with a high-pitched whine. A thin splash of molten metal flew through the air. Rory heard River suck in her breath with pain, as one hit her left arm, making a smoldering pinhole on the posh golden glove. Scolding it for ruining a perfectly good glove, River finally sprung the latch, opening the Dalek's upper casing.

Unable to tear her eyes away, Amy caught a glimpse of the horrible creature inside. This was the Dalek in its natural state. It was like a small, shriveled, green one-eyed octopus. Its tentacles thrashed the air, as River physically grappled with it, striving to strangle the creature.

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. It was finished, he'd gotten the device to work...without it exploding in his face, or making all of space and time vanish faster than a Gorgellian gambler's winnings. Those Gorgellian's did like showing off their bling-bling. Then, thinking of the destruction of earth's time stream, which the Daleks would bring about when they used this weapon, he sighed again.

"What have I just done?" The Doctor whispered, rubbing his face tiredly. "Did I do the right thing, this time? Is there anything right, when it comes to dealing with Daleks?" he turned his head and looked at the Dalek guards standing passively a few paces behind him, and said aloud, "Write on one side of the paper only, please."

"_We do not understand these instructions_. One of the Dalek guards told him. _The Daleks do not obey your orders, Doctor_." The other guard said.

"Yeah, I didn't think you were housebroken. I pity the person who tries to take you for walkies, and positively shudder to think of the mess you'd leave on the carpets." He told them, straightening up and rubbing his sore back. The Doctor noted that the Dalek's guns and eyestalks followed his every move.

"So what happens now? Kill me and my friends, then kill everything else in the universe, I suppose." He said sarcastically as he stood, brushing his hands on his trousers. "Isn't that how you usually do things around here?"

"_That is a control decision. Our only function is to obey orders. _ One of the guards replied. "_I will inform the Central Command Dalek that the device is ready_."

"Oh, and while you're at it, would you ask your boss to send me down some tea? The Doctor quipped, with more bonhomie than he actually felt, "I'm rather parched! I mean, it's the least you can do. It's hard work helping you to destroy every life form in existence, you know."

The Central Command Dalek's image flickered on in the laboratory, slightly over head height, between the Doctor and his guards. The Doctor noted that the Dalek's leader had a predilection for making everyone physically look up to him. A strangely human trait, in a being that abhorred humanity.

"_Doc-tor_! _I have been informed that the device is ready._" The Dalek leader asked."

"You don't have to do this, you know." The Doctor said, trying to reason with what he knew to be a completely unreasonable creature. "The universe was never meant to be uniform and perfect, don't you understand? It's the millions of variations and imperfections which makes the universe and all life forms, so diverse and unique and wonderful!:"

"_You call them wonderful Doctor, we call them an abomination_." The Central Command Dalek answered. "_We will use this weapon your people created to wipe out every species in existence_. _Since you are the last of the Time Lords, Doctor_., t_hen you should know that it is now your time to die_."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Taking a wary step back, the Doctor watched as his two Dalek guards turned their gun arms towards him. The image of the Central Command Dalek which had been hovering above them, flickered out. It was proof to the Doctor that the Dalek leader was so confident of his imminent death, that it couldn't even be bothered to watch.

"So this is how it ends." The Doctor said to no one in particular. "Not with a bang or a whimper, but with a zappy noise from a greeny Dalek death ray. Well boys," he shrugged at the two guards, "this looks like the end of the trail for the old Doctor." Then he smiled. But it wasn't a pleasant grin, and an angry, almost mad look came into his eyes, "Oh, but wait. I'm the Oncoming Storm. Or, have you forgotten that? I've survived two hits by your weapons in the recent past, and yet here I am, alive and well. That's very cool, don't you think? Which begs the question: am I really fated to die by your hands, or do the complexities of time and the universe have other plans for me?"

"_The Central Command Dalek has ordered to you die, Doctor. We will obey." _ The right hand Dalek spoke, it's voice strangely shrill. Yet, they hadn't killed him. In fact, that particular Dalek guard actually backed away from him, as if it were suddenly afraid of the Doctor.

_You must be exterminated_! _Exter-min-ate_! _Exter-min-at_e!" The other Dalek spoke, almost insanely, Abruptly surging forward to make the kill.

Without warning, the Dalek's head blew off, sending bits of metal and green flesh whistling past the Doctor's head. The Doctor instinctively had thrown himself aside, and saw out of the corner of his eye, the second Dalek getting the same treatment.

They'd come in from one of the air vents near the floor, on the opposite side of the lab. It had been out of the Dalek's field of vision, but not the Doctor's. Even before he'd started to speak to his guards, his extra sensitive hearing had caught the relatively quiet movement of his three friends crawling through the air ducts. That's why he'd kept talking to his guards, so they wouldn't notice.

"Cutting it rather fine, weren't you?" The Doctor rudely asked River Song, as she and Amy and Rory came surging across the room to be happily reunited with him. He broke into a smile, and hugged them, asking, "Is everyone alright?"Amy? Rory? River didn't get you into any trouble, did she?"

"Me? Get them into trouble? Who's the one who brought them here?" River asked indignantly, cradling a Dalek gun in her arm.

She'd taken the weapon off the Dalek she'd strangled in the storage hold. Then, River had carefully hacked into the ship's computer terminal, and found a path through the air ducts which presumably lead to the lab where she suspected the Doctor was being held. At least, that area showed maximum security settings on its door.

"They were in one of those American fried chicken shops! You know, the one with the old geezer wearing the tacky 'tache. What was I supposed to do, just leave them there?" The Doctor replied with a shudder. "Now if it'd been a chippy, that would've been completely different. Can't go wrong with good old fish and chips. Safe as houses."

"If we could just focus for a minute, Doctor." Rory interrupted. "Aren't the Daleks going to check to see if you're dead by now?"

"Erm—probably, yeah." The Doctor conceded.

At that very moment, an alarm began to sound. The Central Command Dalek's voice seemed to come out of nowhere, and be everywhere. It announced that the prisoners were escaping and, as the Doctor put it; 'surprise, surprise'; that they were to be exterminated. River, Amy and Rory immediately headed back to the air ducts.

"Don't bother," the Doctor said, "the Daleks are probably already monitoring every centimeter of duct work on this ship. We'll have to find another way back to the TARDIS."

"Thank God for that. My knees were beginning to feel like raw beef mince." Amy said, relieved despite their desperate situation. "I'm telling you right now, Rory," she scolded her husband, "if you ever move us into a home with heating or air ducts in it, I will so divorce you."

"Erm-?" Rory looked at his wife askance."I really don't think now is the time to be discussing our future home buying plans, Amy."

River looked around. She saw no other escape route from the lab, except the opening to the air vents and the lab's single door. Rory and Amy also looked around the room, trying to find an obvious escape route.

"It's impossible, Doctor." River said worriedly, "It's either the air ducts or the front door."

"You're forgetting something, River." The Doctor told her.

"What's that?" She asked. Oddly, he seemed unusually calm. She hoped that was a good sign.

"Oh, I do hate to drop names, that's so positively gauche. But, in this case, I'll make an exception; Houdini in New York, Xenocanter the Great on Pentaxico II, Pen and Teller in Vegas."

"What?" Rory asked, not following the Doctor at all.

"Ah!" River said, catching on immediately. "Misdirection!"

"Exactly!" The Doctor replied, nodding his head sagely.

"Sorry." Amy said, looking baffled. "What are you two on about? Is this some kind of secret code?"

"No. But that's not a bad idea. It means, Amy," The Doctor responded, giving her a mischievous wink, "That I'm going to make us all disappear."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The door to the lab burst open with a fiery explosion and five Daleks entered, their guns and eyestalks swiveling about every which way. A thin trail of smoke wafted through the room, as one of the Daleks glided over to the open grating covering the air duct. Another was standing in front of the damaged locking mechanism next to the door. A third Dalek was examining one of the lab's computer terminals. The two others roamed about the room, looking for the escaped prisoners.

"_Report_!" came the booming voice of the Central Command Dalek. "_Have you located the prisoners_?" Oddly for a Dalek, their leader sounded particularly peeved.

"_The Doctor and his companions are not here_." The Dalek at the computer terminal spoke. "_According to the data, the Doctor has disabled the security scanners within the lab. They must have escaped through the environmental control vents" _

"Then we will fill the shafts with _limonsian gas_. _The Doctor and the human's skin will burn and their blood will boil. They will all die! I order you to bring the Time Lord weapon to the command deck. We must prepare for its deployment. Nothing will stop us now. The destruction of the human race will begin!_" The Central Command Dalek sounded almost giddy with happiness.

"_We obey_!" the five Daleks chorused, as they trundled out of the room, two of them taking the black box between them.

For the first time in hours, the Dalek laboratory was empty and silent. Then, a trickle of dust filtered down from the ceiling. A pair of booted feet in argyle socks appeared, accompanied by the bottom half of some dark blue trousers. The Doctor shifted one of the ceiling tiles, and dropped to the floor . He frowned as he noticed that one of his red braces had come undone.

In a nearby part of the ceiling, Sparkling gold shoes attached to a pair of shapely legs also dangled from an opening in the one of the panels. River dropped neatly to the floor, smiling with satisfaction at having tricked their enemies. Likewise, in other parts of the lab, Amy and Rory emerged. Rory held out his arms for Amy as she jumped down from above. He became unbalanced, and fell over when he caught her.

"I love you very much Amy, but maybe you should lay off the fried Mars bars for a while." He muttered, trying to regain his breath. Jeez, he had no idea she was this heavy. She looked so thin, Rory thought she'd be light as a feather. Apparently not when she dropped on him from a ceiling, however.

Are you saying I'm fat?" Amy huffed, pushing herself off of him.

"Uh-oh, Rory," River laughed, "I think you're in a lot more danger from Amy right now, than from the Daleks."

"Erm—?" Rory said, sitting up but keeping a wary eye on Amy's right fist, "No, not at all, Amy. I Er—think you're perfect, just the way you are." He cringed at the incensed look on his wife's face. "Please don't hit me."

"Oi! You two!" The Doctor said, " Save the domestic spats until after we've defeated the Daleks and I get you back home, yeah? Preferably someplace nowhere near my TARDIS. I don't do marital squabbles. Why do you think I used to always travel with single people?"

"Because they're so much more sexy?" River asked, giving the Doctor a suggestive leer. She laughed when the Doctor's face actually reddened. He gave her a disgusted look and turned away, pretending to rummage in his pocket for something.

"How are we supposed to get back to London, Doctor?" Rory asked, hoping the change of topic would give Amy something else to focus on. He stood, brushing the dust from his jeans. "Last that I noticed, our only mode of transport was sitting smack in the middle of the ship's main command deck. I mean, it's not like you can just swan in and say 'hullo Daleks, I'd really like my TARDIS back, cheers'.

"Well, I could try that approach, I suppose," the Doctor said, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, " but that sounds rather dull, and I don't do dull. Ask River, she'll vouch for me."

"No, definitely not dull, Doctor." She smiled. "Though there was that incident with the giant broccoli on the third moon of Larry when...oh, sorry. Spoilers. Have to watch that, don't want the universe to implode, do we?."

"Wait," Amy interrupted, "there's actually a moon called 'Larry'?'"

"Of course not, Amy." The Doctor answered. "That particular moon is called Fred. The planet it orbits is called Larry. The other two moons are Gladys and Bertha."

"You realize that none of this will matter, if the Daleks get that weapon to work, Doctor" River said, her face suddenly somber. Three of us and billions of other people will never have existed, by then."

"Trust me." The Doctor said, grinning at them like a kid on Christmas morning, "I have a plan."

"What plan?" Rory said, looking very dubious.

"Dunno' yet, but I'm sure it's going to be totally awesome." The Doctor announced, brandishing his sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor, I swear, if the next words out of your mouth are '_surf's up, dudes_', I'm afraid that I'll have no choice but to gaffer tape your mouth shut." River said, rolling her eyes.

All of the sudden, the four of them heard a hissing noise. Eight pairs of eyes were drawn to the open air vent shaft on the other side of the room, where an bright yellow cloud of noxious gas began billowing out, slowly filling the lab.

"Limonsian gas!" The Doctor said. "They must be couching their bets, making sure we can't escape back to this room. We've got to get out of here, now!"

The Doctor bolted towards the door, the others following close behind him. Pressing the door switch, he expected the door to automatically slide open, but it was shut fast. Pointing his sonic at it, he pressed down. The screwdriver gave a high-pitched warbling sound. Nothing happened. The Doctor stared at the door, silently cursing in old low Galifreyan.

"What's happening, Doctor? Why won't the door open?" Amy asked.

"The Daleks have deadlocked it shut." He said, sheer desperation creeping into face. The Doctor turned to his three friends, not looking them in the eyes. He could see the yellow gas slowly creeping across the floor towards them. "I can't do anything. I'm sorry. I'm really very, very sorry. We're sealed in. This time, there really is no way out."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

In the main command centre of the Dalek battle fleet, the Central Command Dalek watched impassively, as several Daleks on the deck below him prepared the device. It was sat on a stainless steel table, the black box taking up much of the table's surface. One Dalek's metal arm had been fitted with a special attachment to make operating controls meant for five-digit humanoid hands, easier. As it tweaked a dial on the box, lights began flashing green and red like a deadly Christmas decoration. Their leader looked on while low humming noise began to emit from the weapon.

"_Device activated and primed_." One of the Daleks said, as it suction arm tweaked one of the dials. "_It will now take nine hundred rels for the weapon to be fully charged and ready for deployment_."

"_The Doctor and his companions are dead. Today the people of Earth will be destroyed by their own past. The universe will be cleansed of the human race forever._" The Central Command Dalek gloated. "_Then we will put an end to all other life forms in existence. Only the pure Dalek will remain. The Dalek race will reign supreme!_"

With those words, a hundred Dalek voices throughout the command deck chanted, "_Daleks are supreme_! _Daleks are supreme_! _Daleks are supreme_!

In the shadows of the corridor leading to the command deck, all was quiet. On the other side of the closed main doors, all was a beehive of activity. The rest of the ship seemed almost to be holding its breath in anticipation. A shadow detached itself from one of the corners. It was the Doctor. He was followed by River, Rory and Amy, as they cautiously moved forward, using every dark place and corner they could find for cover.

"See? I told you it would work." River whispered smugly. "Switching the sonic's setting to fifty-one, while simultaneously holding down the blue switch and the damper. Presto-change-o! Door open. You are so stubborn, sometimes."

"And obstinate. Yeah, I know." The Doctor whispered back. He was looking all around for any signs of Dalek activity or security devices. He was not in the best of moods, and River knew why. "That's why I'm still here, still fighting Daleks. Now, will you please stop talking? We got this far, and I'd find it seriously embarrassing to be caught now, because I was busy being lectured by some...overgrown know-it-all teenager."

River looked at Amy and Rory and raised her eyebrows. She shrugged as if she didn't care about the Doctor being so churlish to her. River knew that the he was being grouchy because she seemed to have a better knowledge of the workings of his own screwdriver, than he did. River nodded her head in agreement with the Doctor's next words;

"The Daleks hate party crashers, especially party crashers who bring more guests than the usual plus one. We'll have to find some other way in." The Doctor whispered very softly, as they paused opposite the entrance to the command deck.

Stealthily leading them past a closed door, the Doctor silently motioned to his friends to follow him down the corridor. All of the sudden, they heard a familiar whirring sound coming from around the corner behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, the Doctor saw the black shadow of a Dalek's eye stalk outlined on the wall of an adjacent hallway, slowly approaching. It would turn the corner any second and see them.

"Quickly, run!" He hissed, as the four of them made a mad dash for the next corner down the hallway. The Doctor was less worried now about the noise their running would make, than of what would happen if the were all caught out in the open.

They'd just about made it, when Dalek at the other end came around the corner. It paused, saw an empty corridor in front of it, then trundled on. Pressing a switch in the wall with it's sucker arm, a door slid open and it entered the command deck. The Doctor sighed with relief. The way was clear again. Beckoning to the o thers to follow him, he lead the way down another passageway, stopping in front of a wide set of doors.

"Oh no, not more of this! This definitely wasn't in the TARDIS travel brochure. I should ask for compensation." Amy murmured resentfully.

Rory stared disconsolately at the empty lift shaft, in full agreement with his wife. The Doctor explained that it was a utility lift which the Daleks used to bring equipment to the upper decks of the ship. Apparently teleportation required substantial amounts of power, so the Daleks used old fashioned lifts to conserve fuel. Already the Doctor had entered the shaft, followed by River.

Amy watched Rory's bottom, as he climbed the metal cable hanging down from the shaft. Smiling to herself, she decided that maybe she could get used to this, after all. Rory reached down his hand and helped Amy onto the cabling. He silently prayed that the lift wouldn't come down from the upper floor while they were still climbing.

The four of them climbed, hand over hand, to the second level. The climb was hampered by the fact that the metal cabling had patches of some sort of grease on it. There were steel support girders running horizontally around the four walls of the lift shaft. Rory groaned when the Doctor told them they would have to jump on to the steel beans, then make their way along them, until they got to the opposite wall...where there was yet another ventilation duct waiting for them to craw through.

Going first, the Doctor braced himself, and reaching out as far as he could with his right leg, jumped from the cable the half-meter to the beam. He braced both hands against the wall, as his other leg found purchase on the narrow beam. Putting his back to the wall, the Doctor held out his hand to River. She'd ripped her dress up the side, so she wouldn't be hampered by it.

"Well, there goes the manicure." River said blithely, looking at her dirty hands. She'd shed her gloves back in the storage area, after killing the Dalek there. By now. Besides the rip in her gown, her hair was rumpled and there was a smudge of grease on her left cheek. "Are you sure you know where we're going, Doctor? I'd hate it if I messed up my posh couture for nothing."

The Doctor merely gave her a look, like a long-suffering parent dealing with a persistently nettlesome child. Rory was next to jump over. He did it quite handily, without assistance. Though Rory didn't say so, Amy could see that her husband was rather chuffed about it.

Amy had had difficulty getting from the cable to the wall. With the Doctor and Rory assisting her, she'd made it. She was now standing alongside the Doctor, her back pressed against the wall, cringing at the thought of walking along a steel beam that was not much wider than her own forearm.

"You've got to be kidding me. I've gotta' get across that?" she told him.

"Look, if all you're going to do is stand there and whinge and make smartarse comments, I'm going to make you clean the TARDIS loos when we get back. That should take you all of about three months, cos' they haven't been cleaned in at least a century." The Doctor groused. "Now, would you rather do that, or get across this lift shaft so we can escape from the Daleks, stop them from using that weapon, and get you all back home to your nice...erm—fried chicken?" He finished lamely.

"Um—lift shaft please." Rory volunteered, raising his hand. Amy said she went along with that.

"Good choice! I'd take Daleks over scrubbing toilets any day. And forget about changing the litter box. Bleurgh! I'd take Daleks and Cyberman both!" The Doctor shuttered.

"I thought the TARDIS loos were self-cleaning, sweetie." River said dryly.

"Oh, never mind about that. What're you going on about the loos for, when we're trapped in a ship full of Daleks?" The Doctor said dismissively. "Now, come on. And be careful! Keep your eyes open for any security monitors.".

The girders were only wide enough for them to flatten themselves against the wall, moving in a shuffling side step. They were inching their way around the walls, when Amy's foot slipped on a patch of grease. With a stifled cry, she fell. The Doctor's hand shot out and he caught her. She heard Rory cry out her name, but then she didn't have time for anything else. It wasn't a long drop, but that kind of fall on the hard concrete floor below would certainly break something, possibly even her neck.

"Hang on, Amy! I've got you!" The Doctor told her. She reached with her free hand and grabbed on to the waistband on the side of his trousers. The Doctor was trying not to unbalance himself. If he fell, he'd take Amy with him. Gratefully, the Doctor felt River grab on to his shoulder to help steady him. Then, his other hand grasped onto hers, and pulling her up by both hands, assisted by River, he managed to drag her back onto the steel beam.

"Amy, are you alright?" Rory asked anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gasped, straightening up and flattening herself against the wall again. "Thanks Doctor. You too, River."

The four of them made it without any more incidents to the opening in the far wall. Doctor crawled on his stomach through the air shaft. The gas in the lab and its adjoining air ducts hadn't penetrated this close to the main command deck. As quietly as possible, he made his way to an opening in the ceiling. The Doctor smiled when he saw what was below him. His TARDIS!

Unfortunately, the door to his ship was flanked by two guards.

"How are we going to get to the TARDIS?" Rory whispered.

The Doctor dug into his jacket pocket and rummaged around. He pulled something out, holding it in his open palm for Rory to see.

You're gonna' distract the Daleks with that?" Rory said doubtfully. Then, he thought about it. "Yeah, you probably are."

The two Dalek guards believed their leader when he told them that the Doctor and his companions were dead. Still, the Doctor's ship was a powerful weapon, and must be closely guarded. The tall blue box stood parked, dark and silent, in the back of the room. One Dalek stood with its vision trained on the TARDIS doors, the other stood watching the ship's perimeter. Around them, the other Daleks were all focused on the black box on the table in the centre of the room.

"_Device will be ready for deployment in sixty rels_." A Dalek standing near the weapon announced.

Just then, the Dalek watching the TARDIS doors heard a strange noise. It looked. A small round piece of colourful glass rolled across the floor. Then, another dropped down from the ceiling, gave a slight bounce, and rolled across the floor. Then another, and another dropped, bounced and rolled. The other Dalek had noticed this as well.

"_What are those objects? What is happening_?" It asked its partner.

"I do not know. I will investigate." The other Dalek replied.

The moment both Daleks turned their eyestalks away from the TARDIS, following the glass marbles which the Doctor had dropped from the ceiling, River, Amy and Rory, crashed through the ceiling, right next to the TARDIS doors. Even as the Daleks turned, River already had the TARDIS door's open. As the Dalek nearest them turned to fire its weapon, River had already slammed the door shut. The Dalek ray bounced harmlessly off the TARDIS door.

_What is happening? Report! Report!_" screamed the Central Command Dalek.

The other Dalek looked up at the ceiling and saw the Doctor. He grinned and waved at it.

"Hello! I'd stay and chat but I'm a very busy man I'm afraid. See ya'!" The Doctor told it, before scrambling out of the way of the beam of it's death ray. He ducked as the beam slightly ricocheted off the metal of the air duct. Then, he was gone. Seconds later, the ship's lights came on, its ancient engines groaned, as the TARDIS dematerialized.

"What about the Doctor?" Amy cried out, as River ran about piloting the ship

"Stand by that door, Amy, and get ready to open it fast, when I tell you to. Don't you dare open it until I say so." River ordered, as she stood by the console. She was frantically moving between flipping switches and twisting dials, and glancing at the ship's monitor.

\

The Doctor had scrambled out of the air ducts and back into the lift shaft. As he emerged from the duct, and worked his way on to the steel girders lining the shaft, the doors below him opened. Three Daleks came gliding in. Their eyestalks and guns both raised upward, ready to blast the Doctor out of existence.

"Oh." The Doctor said simply, looking down for the first time. "OK, Maybe not the best timing in the world, Doctor."

Just then, the shaft was filled with a groaning noise, as the TARDIS materialized practically right in front of the Doctor's nose. The Daleks fired at him, but the three blasts bounced harmlessly off of ship's outer force field, as it protected the Doctor. "Here comes my lift fellas', which means you're getting the shaft. Adiós, amigos! Or should I say, "buenos TARDIS!" The Doctor waved to the Daleks, as Amy threw open the TARDIS door, allowing the him to jump inside.

Amy and Rory watched the Doctor sprint up onto the console deck, taking over from River. He frantically pawed at the controls.

"We've got to get out of here, now!" He called over to River. "Press down the anomolytic crystallizer, push the nano-nuclear air-foil switch, and jiggle that fluorescent thing-a-ma-bob next to the visual heads-up display. And, be quick about it!" Without looking up, River nodded and got busy.

"What about the weapon, Doctor?" Amy called over to him, as she and Rory braced themselves against the the jump seat on the console deck.

"Well, that's why we're getting out of here, you see. I changed the device to only act on anything within the area taken up by the Dalek battle fleet, which is a mere twenty thousand miles. The fleet's sitting ten million miles above the Earth, so that shouldn't experience any affects from the weapon. Well, except for some rainy weather, perhaps. I'm afraid these Daleks are doomed to live their past," The Doctor said, almost regretfully, "any second now. Pity they won't live through it. Maybe they'd learn something."

On the main command deck, all Daleks were focused on the weapon. The big projection image above the Central Command Dalek showed flashing images of Earth's major cities in real time: London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Sydney, Johannesburg, Cairo, Bangladesh, Moscow, Shanghai.

"_Device deploying in five rels_." One of the Daleks operating the weapon announced. "_Five...four...three...two...one_."

All Dalek eyes waited expectantly, to see modern Earth cities changed by wars and plagues and disasters of their past. See the forerunners of the human race, the very apes which would one day become human, be displaced to the future and wiped out by events there. The Central Command Daleks felt all-powerful, to be the cause of billions of humans winking out of existence, as their ancestors all died.

Instead, the Daleks on the ship suddenly found themselves face to face with dozens of raggedly dressed Kaled soldiers from the Dalek homeworld of Skaro. Men and women from the time just before the Daleks were first created. The soldiers were armed with an odd assortment of old and new battle dress and weapons. The moment they appeared, the soldiers fired, and a handful of Daleks died.

"_Weapon malfunctioning_!" The Dalek at the device's controls called out in warning.

"_You have failed in your duty, you will be exterminated!_" The Central Command Dalek struck down the Dalek. Then it shouted, "_Kill the soldiers_!_ Exterminate them! Exterminate_!"

Before the Daleks could fire back, the Kaled soldiers vanished. Instead, the Daleks found their ships suddenly surrounded with thousands of battle TARDIS'. The Galifreyan battle fleet of the Time War were back from the past, amassing all their firepower against the Daleks.

"_This is the Doctor's doing_!' The Central Command Dalek raged, "_Prepare to engage the enemy! Fire all weapons_!"

It was too late. As one, gleaming gold and silver in the reflection of the distant sun, the cylinder-shaped battle TARDIS' focused all of their weapons on the Dalek fleet. The darkness of space was filled with bright white light, as the main Dalek ship and all the surrounding ships, blew up in a shattering explosion. As the light faded, the place where the ships had been was empty of all but a few nearby stars.

In a charming, pleasantly shaded park somewhere in London, the TARDIS noisily materialized beneath a tall and stately chestnut tree. The Doctor emerged, followed by River, Amy and Rory. The Doctor informed them that it was a beautiful spring day in 2011. River told him it was autumn. Before that line of conversation could develop into a childish spat, Rory interrupted them.

"Well..." Rory said blandly, gazing around, "This is...nice. Very peaceful after spending the day running away from another alien menace, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but two of us aren't here to enjoy it." Amy said, trying to remember that, despite their current slyvan surroundings, not all of them had made it safely back to Earth. She somehow felt like there was something more they could do, or could have done. "Why are we here, Doctor?" Amy asked him.

"Thought you might like some proper food, Amy." The Doctor shrugged. He was trying not to feel the terrible loss of his friend, Malcolm. And though he hadn't liked the major very well, the Doctor was genuinely sorry he'd died. Ignoring the pain inside him for the time being, the Doctor smiled and said, "None of that corporate mass produced nonsense you had before. Lovely British restaurant just down the road, serves the most gorgeous piri-piri chicken and chips you've ever tasted."

"You mean Nandos, don't you?" River asked sarcasstically.

"Of course, where else?" The Doctor said, as he thrust his hand in his pocket. He pulled out a mixture of pound notes, euros, pesos, Canadian dollars and Verellian gatschmaltz's. "Here," he said, handing them to River, "show the kids how to have a good time, ey? Erm—legally and non-violently if you please, River. I'll pick you up sometime tomorrow morning, right here."

With that, the Doctor turned and headed back into the TARDIS.

"Oi! Hang on, where're you going, Doctor?" Amy shouted.

"I'm going off somewhere to find myself. If you see me before I get back, do me a favour and tell me where I went." The Doctor replied, waving them off without turning around, and shutting the TARDIS door behind him.

End


End file.
